on being a metro-sexual
I love public transportation. Especially reliable, accessible public transportation. In fact, I hate being a car owner. This is something I’ve known about myself for a long time. When I moved to Los Angeles in 1999, I sold my car because I was moving to a big city with public transportation, and therefore no longer needed a car.
I have taken public transportation in a number of cities – NYC, DC, London, Paris, Barcelona and Madrid. And, in the spring of ’99 when I visited LA with my roomie to see if we did, indeed, want to stay there, we took buses and got to places we wanted to be.
Then, I moved there. I survived without a car for an entire year – which was rather amazing according to people I knew. I did spend a lot of money of taxis, and finally, I broke down and bought a car. A crappy, crappy cheap car. And it ran for about 2 years, but it was getting to the point that I was spending between $200-$300/month on repairs, and figured, for that price, why not just get a car that actually works? I was living in Venice and working in Burbank at the time, so the car was really the only transportation option. So, I got the Hyundai. If I hadn’t refinanced it a couple of years ago, I would pay it off this fall. But, I did – and I’m not due to pay it off now until 2010 (when I refinanced, I got a supplementary loan to pay off a lot of other debt, so really, it was a good thing).
Then, I moved to Portland. Land of excellent transportation. The buses, they come at the time they say they will come. And there is MAX. I love MAX. There are a few things that I need a car for, like getting groceries, and camping, but that’s why I have a husband with a pickup.
Sigh….stupid car. That was smooshed. Car that had almost $5,000 worth of damage, only half of which was related to the accident (the other half is all related to poles in parking garages in LA) – which means that only half got fixed by insurance. Although the car fixer place did a good job, and although they couldn’t fix the pole damage, they did remove all the yellow paint and gave me some free touch-up paint so that it will look nicer, even if still dented.
But people, tell me how to get rid of my car that I still owe money on. I owe about $7,000 on it, and I think that’s about what it’s worth. How do I get rid of it, without buying a new car? I do not want it. I do not want to drive it or have it or feed it. HELP!
Follow me on social!
