I Am So Stoked,

having just got off the phone with a Syrian man who wants to buy my 1996 Toyota Carib for his wife to learn to drive with. It’s a great car that has served me well for 19 years, and I expect to continue to power on for a few more years. It’s so satisfying to me to know that it will serve someone well, instead of being destined for the scrap-metal heap.

It’s so NZ, that one can mention to an acquaintance that they want their loved and still reliable 24-year-old car to go to someone who can benefit from it - and within a few hours find the perfect match. I love living in a country that is small and intimate enough to make magic happen.

I hope you'll excuse my overly enthusiastic self at the moment ; ).

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studentofearth's picture

Word of mouth travels fast.

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8 users have voted.

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

janis b's picture

@studentofearth

to be reminded that it really is about smaller connected communities which can be created anywhere, no matter the size of the country or the world.

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2 users have voted.

your old beater found a new home.
Did you replace it with a hybrid?

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5 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@QMS

So far I’ve test driven 3 models of Toyota Hybrids, all the same year, 2014.
An Aqua (smaller hatchback)
A Corolla Axio (smallish sedan)
A Prius sedan

I felt a little like Goldilocks - the aqua felt a little too small, the prius too big, the corolla just the right size but I’m not sure about a sedan style. I will test drive a Corolla Fielder wagon on Monday.

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Lookout's picture

good for you all and the car too!

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4 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

janis b's picture

@Lookout

Enjoy the weekend!

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1 user has voted.

lovely story.

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janis b's picture

@irishking

Your choice of music was just right to fit the mood, very touching.

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Anja Geitz's picture

To a colleague at work who fixed up VW, she cried. While I've never been very attached to any of the cars I've owned, I still appreciated how much that car meant to her.

Glad to hear your car has found a new home Smile

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4 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

janis b's picture

@Anja Geitz

I am definitely attached after so long. I feel almost as if I am breaking a kind of mutual loyalty apart.

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2 users have voted.
RantingRooster's picture

near indestructible, if you change the oil regularly.

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6 users have voted.

C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

janis b's picture

@RantingRooster

a great car. It does have a very small engine oil leak.

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WoodsDweller's picture

I sold my old Ford that I had bought new and driven for 29 years. Someone is still driving it, it's got some life left in it.

https://www.bts.gov/content/average-age-automobiles-and-trucks-operation...

Average age of light vehicles (passenger cars and light trucks) on the road in the US in 2019: 11.8 years.

This is something to keep in mind when considering transitioning the vehicle fleet to electrics. If you want to accelerate the transition you have to increase production (with that average you would be replacing about 8% of vehicles every year), and people drive old vehicles because they can't afford new ones, so you would need subsidies. Six years after every new car on the lot is electric, half the vehicles on the road are still burning gas and diesel. It's either a slow, expensive process, or a hugely expensive faster process that leaves you with unused factory capacity.

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3 users have voted.

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

janis b's picture

@WoodsDweller

29 years is such a long time.

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WoodsDweller's picture

@janis b
Yes, it was. I'm 58, I drove it half my life. Work, play, moving between states, hauling stuff home from the store, hauling it to the landfill years later. There was some dog hair underneath the stuff behind the seats from dogs long gone. Maps left over from road trips.
It was strange not to see it in the yard. But I got over it in a week or so.

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4 users have voted.

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

janis b's picture

@WoodsDweller

Your words express so tangibly the nostalgia of how it must have felt to part with a constant companion and vehicle for pleasure. It helps.

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3 users have voted.

D-100 pick-up
called him chuck the truck
resurrected former forest service wagon
from the AZ mountains
built a cedar shell in the bed
brought me all over the country
retired to a petting zoo in FL
Smile

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janis b's picture

@QMS

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earthling1's picture

are a far far cry from the Detroit land yachts of the 50s and eary 60s.
If you got 100k out of them you were celebrated in the neighborhood. And 6 - ten MPG was the norm.
Of course, leaded gas was only 18 - 25 cents a gallon.
The Japanese invasion prodded Detroit to improve, but they never could really catch up.
If they don't hobble the electric cars, eventually they will dominate the market soon.
IMHO

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4 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

earthling1's picture

@earthling1
my 86' B 2000 Mazda pick up. It has 357k on it and I'm hoping it will last until my new Tesla cybertruck gets delivered.
(Crossing fingers)

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3 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

janis b's picture

@earthling1

It sounds like your Mazda only has to perform for 3 more years ; ).

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