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Good Bye My Old Clunker And Old Friend - RIP


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SEE ALSO: Cash for Clunkers Consumer Guide

By Bob Gordon
President and Co-publisher
The Auto Channel

Boy do I feel like a disloyal jerk...my 1992 Volvo with 210,000 miles will be turned-in for cash as a clunker against the purchase of a new hybrid SUV (improvement of 11 MPG thank-you). Yeah I know she isn’t what she used to be (but hey who is?), and I know that continuing to use her everyday is really pushing our luck, and that now she is worth more as the clunker that she is than as a rat hole for mechanic’s expenses, ok that’s the reality.

But do I feel good and proud and excited about my new super deluxe car…NO! I can only think of some grease monkey at the dealership smiling with joy as she/he pours a government prescribed poison into my trusty steed’s gut and then revving her over her redline…until her heart stops...how sad.

I have never before felt this way when disposing of an old car of mine...is it because I am older or is it because of the definitive finality of this ignominious end for a car that has been more than terrific to my family over these past 17 years?

My turbo charged, leather interior-ed, power window-ed old girl still has most of her original parts that were stuffed into her in Gothenburg 18 years ago, and her turbo still purrs and she can still cut a mean corner…but enough of these maudlin thoughts…I have to think positively right now…hmmm, maybe her steel will end up in a new life saving medical device or it will end up in the bomb that rids our planet of the vermin that exist here…I can only hope.

When I drive down the road over the next two decades(hopefully) in my hybrid suv I will continually think, "hey new car you’ve got big tires to fill"...so RIP my good servant and companion…I know that if there is a heaven for great cars you will surely have a rock star's parking spot, so rock on gray lady!. Do any other car nuts out there feel the same way as I do? bgordon@theautochannel.com