So Long, Sapphire!

"She was a nice car while she lasted."

Cheryl and I took a nice, long drive down to Gary, Indiana, on Friday, to deliver Sapphire to her new owner. Whose name, incidentally, is Gary.

Weird.

::

The craigslist advertisement had only been up for less than a day when emails started coming in. Not a lot, but enough. By the end of the week, seven people had expressed interest.

Several of them offered me half of what I was asking. I had to go back and modify the ad to specify that the price was firm. Silly me -- it was my impression that unless one uses the phrase, "or best offer", the advertised price is set in stone. No haggling. This isn't Life of Brian.

I had been thinking it would be picked up by someone local, but several of the potential buyers were from out of town. One was from Detroit but apparently made lots of trips to Grand Rapids because he was in real estate.

Another one was from way down in Indiana, but in the beginning I didn't think much of it because he was just looking for a parts car, and Sapphire has so much more to offer than mere parts! But the more we talked about it (over a week of emails), the more interested he became. He requested additional pictures; I sent them. After that, he was the most positive about the car.

Unfortunately, he was in Indiana.

Due to the known mechanical issues with the car -- a small camshaft oil leak and a mysterious noise in the driveshaft (probably a bearing) -- we weren't sure if the car was going to make it all that way, so for a while the buyer was considering driving to Grand Rapids and then towing it all the way back. But that seemed like way too much trouble; and, besides, Cheryl and I were in the mood for adventure, so on Friday we decided to head down right around lunchtime. She took her car and followed me as I drove Sapphire.

Amazingly enough, we had no problems with the car. In fact, she drove like a champ! Kinda made me sad, thinking if only there were more time and money to spend on her...

But -- simplify.

When we arrived at Gary's house and turned into his driveway, we saw a whole line-up of Subarus, of all colors and vintage. It was, in my own words, "Subaru Heaven!"  In fact, he was working on one of them when we arrived. And he gave me a tour of all his cars. And the pile of engines and transmissions in his garage. Made me want to open my own Subaru garage!

We learned that Gary had worked in the trucking industry and in cabinetry, but since he moved to Indiana, he had worked up enough of a reputation to make a living as a "private" Subaru mechanic, buying, fixing them up, and selling them. (Dream job.)

We enjoyed our visit with Gary and his wife; he even expressed an interest in the remaining green one, once he gets through the backlog. So we might end up making another trip down in a couple of months.

Meanwhile, we got the money and jumped in the car and drove back up to Grand Rapids, stopping by GVSU to see Mary (and pick up Cheryl's debit card which had accidentally been left in Mary's possession after the last shopping trip).

Simplification success!!