carbonel

Okay, it's time to start to destash. I have a corner of my living room that's currently devoted to CDs, videotapes, and DVDs, and I'd like to repurpose most of the space for fiber. So that means getting rid of stuff.

First off is Wiseguy, recorded off the TV, on videotape. I have the complete run of the show (I think), most of it recorded at 2-hour speed. It was recorded when WGN was rerunning it, so it might not be completely uncut -- but it has the original music, which the DVDs don't.

Available to a good home for the cost of postage.

One car in, another out.

Yesterday, I bought a car. It's a 2001 black Honda Accord, with more features than you can shake a stick at. (Honestly, I didn't buy the car because of the bells and whistles, but here are some of the things this car has that my old car didn't: power mirror, 6-CD player, power seat adjustments, sliding roof panel (powered, of course), and automatic lock/unlock and trunk latch. All those things normal people are used to, I suppose.) It has leather seats, which are supposed to be a luxury feature, but I hope they're not too cold on Minnesota winter mornings. It also, unlike the Mazda, has a rear bumper, a trunk that you can get the key into (so that's where the broken-off key went), a working tape player, and a radio that displays the station. But those don't exactly count as luxuries.

The only real issue with the car is that the mileage is high: 170K, which is even higher than the Mazda's 145K. Before I bought it, I took it to my mechanic, who was initially dubious, but after looking at it said it must have been owned by someone who took very good care of it.

The potential wild card issue is the timing belt. (Why are timing belts suddenly invading my life?) Unlike the one in my Mazda, if this timing belt breaks, it will destroy the engine. Which means it needs to be replaced, proactively, every 60K-80K miles, says the mechanic. Someone else said that the original one is usually replaced at 130K-150K miles. There's apparently a sticker by mine, but the information on it is illegible, and the car didn't come with any maintenance information. (Should I just have it done now, so I don't have to worry?)

So having bought a new car, I needed to get rid of the old one. The lot where I bought the Accord would have taken the old car off my hands, but would have junked it. I decided that since it was currently running, I should try to sell it. I pulled up the local Craigslist listings for cars, and was discouraged to see how many there were -- I was still on March 5 after two 100-item pages. But near the bottom of that second page was a listing for someone wanting to buy a car -- for cash, $500 to $700 -- to get him to Texas. I called him, and after a bit of phone tag, he offered to come over today to look at it. I did a quick cleanup job on the car before he arrived, and he took it for a test ride. I was honest about everything with him, though I did tell him I was selling the car as is, no warranty, since I couldn't predict how long it would last. But my garage guy had told me this car should get me through the winter as it was, so I told him that.

We settled on $480, which would have been what the original repair would have cost, before the additional gotcha of the fuel leak issue. So I lost money on the repair versus the sale of about $200, but there's a car on the road a bit longer than there would have been if I'd just scrapped the car initially. I hope it works well for him. And in any case, I'm glad not to have to deal with the suspense of listing the car and waiting to hear from prospective buyers.