Senior Owned, the Ad Said… | When a Car Meant Freedom
Seeing my old Nissan Note listed on Craigslist made me laugh... until it made me think. Sometimes a car isn't just transportation. Sometimes it's freedom.
Brendan, our oldest son, brought it to our attention yesterday that he had spotted our Nissan Note on Craigslist.
What cracked us up was that the seller uses the car’s low mileage to attract potential buyers. Adding “senior-owned” might have made it even more attractive.
Hey, when I bought it, I wasn’t a senior yet!
I love… loved this car. It had been mine since 2015. We bought it new. It was a sports-package model, and I absolutely enjoyed driving it.
Now it’s on Craigslist, asking for $6,100—a little lower than what our insurance paid us after declaring my car a total loss.
Also, because the car that I had sadly said goodbye to came back into my attention, I felt compelled to tell my story!
Like everyone else, I’ve owned many cars throughout my life. However, the meaning of owning a car changed completely for me after I uprooted my life and returned to the U.S. twenty-one years ago.
Let me backtrack a little bit. Like most kids in the U.S., I got my driver’s license at 16, but I wasn’t allowed to drive until… (are you ready?) 20!!
That’s right. Not only did my mom forbid me from driving, but I also didn’t put my hands on the wheel until my second year in college.
I came from a culture where parents took responsibility for their kids until… who knows when!
While my friends were driving their moms’ and dads’ old cars, I couldn’t drive anything! My parents were concerned about my safety, so they wanted to reduce the number of days I drove.
My mom said that one spends more than half of their lifetime driving. According to her, I was too young to know what to do should something were to happen.
Go ahead, roll your eyes back into your forehead. I did too, and got a good smack on my arm for it.
She was being a protective Thai mom, okay?
Now I totally get it and love her even more—but not back then.
So, to my young mind, car = freedom, so no car, no freedom!
Fast forward twenty-one years. When we moved back to the U.S., I didn’t have a job, and we lived with only one car for about ten years.
It was a seven-passenger van, a top-of-the-line Nissan Quest with movie screens and all. With four kids at 14, 10, 7, and almost 5, the van was awesome!
We got the Nissan Note ten years later, when the Quest was showing signs of old age.
YAY for me! FREEDOM, finally!
Then the Quest was in an eight-car pile-up one winter day.
Wahhh… a total loss.
For a long time, my Baby Note was a zippy little car that I used for driving around town, taking the kids from place to place. We hardly took it on trips.
However, there was one long trip about seven years ago, when we made our big move across America—from East to West. That was when we became Nevadans.
Las Vegas Valley is slightly larger than Lehigh Valley, where I came from, so my car was going farther. Still, when I last owned it, it had only 38,000 miles on it. And the Note was in great shape.
By then, Ralph’s car gave up, so he bought me a Mercedes and drove the Nissan Note.
Until one day, when it got T-boned.
Hit-and-run.
Cut-and-dried.
The side airbag deployed. Luckily, Ralph wasn’t hurt except for bruises and cuts.
Sadly, I watched my Baby Note get towed away.
This hit me hard. Since I was 20, I have been using cars to announce my freedom, so seeing it brutally violated… how’s this for my word choice?… made me sad.
I asked Ralph to take me to the tow yard so I could say goodbye to my beloved car.
I know. I know!
At first, Ralph said yes, but then we got busy with other things, and I didn’t get to say my goodbyes.
Once again, the insurance company declared it a total loss. We used the money for the down payment on his new car.
Another Nissan, ha ha.
We love the brand and keep buying it!
But the Note was in great shape because we maintained it regularly.
Gosh, I really miss driving it. It’s fun, especially with the way I drive; the car was perfect for me and my foot!
Ralph would say, "But now you've got a small Mercedes—isn't that better and more fun?"
Fun, yes!
Better?
Both cars are different.
All I had to do with the Nissan Note was slam the accelerator, and the car moved—strong and fast. I had a total sense of control.
Oh, yes!!!
As for the Mercedes, I tap gently, as if I were using only the last two toes on my right foot, and it goes!
So quickly, so lightly!
Do I feel like I have control?
Not really, but here I am. It feels as if I’m gliding (rather quickly) through clouds!
Which car do I enjoy driving more?
I love them both, and for different reasons.
Yesterday Nicholas—my son #2—also said,
"Let's get our Note back!"
I wish I could!
But I’m pretty sure they took the car apart and replaced some of the original parts with whatever parts they had.
Plus, the side airbag deployed in the accident, so no, I don’t want to buy it back.
Sorry, Nicholas!
The asking price is less than what our insurance paid us. To me, that indicates the Note is no longer the same Note I loved.
Wahhh…
Okay, enough.
I won’t go into the psychological details of my "Car = Freedom" story. Part of it won’t be fun for you to hear.
But I’m okay, guys!
I’ve survived the trauma!
Ha!
It’s just life, you know?
So, if I leave you hanging, just hang, okay?
Maybe one day, I’ll revisit it.
Yeah.
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