Like Father Like Daughter

Seven or eight or nine years ago I was minding my own business driving through a parking lot at a mall in my beloved '87 Wolfsburg Edition VW Cabriolet convertible when a dumb kid clobbered me doing about 50 and totaled it right out from under me. After spinning me ninety degrees and stopping me cold he continued to spin around, go up over a curb island and crash backward into two or three parked cars.

While I was in Columbia over Christmas, my daughter had her '90 VW Cabriolet totaled in a mall parking lot. It's becoming a family tradition. In her case, a young woman came out of a parking spot not seeing her (not looking is more likely) going the wrong way and Stacey clobbered her. The officer who came sized up the situation without any trouble and declared the other girl to be at fault. The damage to Stacey's little fun-mobile was entirely fixable. There was no discernible mechanical damage save the punctured radiator. But all the body panels on the front of the car were damaged to the point of needing replacement and the estimate was over $4,000 to fix it. So, sadly, the car worth a bit over $2,000 was, of course, totaled. It will no doubt be on the road again one day. I would have bought it back at salvage price, bought a junker with good body panels (which I could have done for $500 and a trip to North Carolina), and fixed it myself, but at the moment I have no place to store one wrecked car, let alone two, have no place to work on such a project, and my tools are not accessible to me anyway. So we had to let it go.

We did a bit of shopping at car lots looking at the normal overpriced old junk. The daughter learned quickly why you don't buy a car at such a place. We both pored over the Auto Trader listings and discussed numerous alternatives. We prayed we would find something suitable for a price that would work. And that the answer would be obvious. She suggested we cruise the Walmart parking lot as there is an area where people are constantly putting used cars for sale. And there it was. A sporty looking 1995 Saturn SC1 coupe. Red with a moonroof. Cute little car. And the price was very right. A cellphone call brought Joseph the owner to us in a few minutes and we got the story about the car and took it for a drive. It's a very clean little car for it's age and miles. His mom had just given him a newer car after she bought a brand new one so he didn't need this one anymore (he has several other vehicles as well). When we went to close the deal and pick up the car I saw that this bachelor was fastidious about his house, his boats, motorcycle, and other vehicles. That gave me a good feeling that the maintenance the little car had received was probably as good as he said it had been.

In the end the insurance settlement is paying more than she paid for the VW several years ago and she actually has about $600 left after buying the replacement car, which is five years newer. So financially it worked out pretty well. The only bummer is that it's not a convertible. But maybe after college is over and the girl has a real job, she'll be able to get another rag top. I hope so. After a wait of the better part of a decade, I finally have another one. And as much as I loved the VW, I like this one even more. But, nonetheless, it's a very sad day when you have to say goodbye to your first convertible.