Driving is one of my least favorite things about being a grown up.
In Seattle I didn’t have a car. I lived on the busses and trains, walking to friends’ houses, work and grocery stores everyday for years. And while I admit that walking is definitely not as ideal as teleporting, and that sometimes having a car would have made my life a bit easier, I can honestly say that I miss it.
I quite enjoyed taking the extra half hour to get to work in the morning because it was spent out and about, in the world and I could choose to be productive and read or just chill and watch the people and places around me. Not having a car forced me to interact with the world in a way I don’t have to now that I have a car. Now I wake up in the morning, get in my car drive to work, sit at work, drive home and go to bed. The only people I see or interact with are people I already know, my coworkers or friends. Even at the grocery store I don’t talk to anyone, self checkout means I don’t even have to make eye contact.
I miss seeing the world around me! And I know I could change this by running in the evenings or just being a better participant in society, but it just isn’t quite the same.
So when my car broke down a few weeks ago, part of me was slightly excited. Will I be forced to ride the bus again? Even in a city that is DOMINATED by cars, maybe I’ll learn to love the terrible bus system! Maybe I’ll start biking everywhere! But after a few minutes of sitting on the side of the road my car started up again and I was left with a much more profound decision.
Is fixing a car worth my money?
For the last two months now my car stops working whenever it is over 85 degrees, I’ve been driving for more than 15 minutes, and I go uphill for more than 5 minutes. It has something to do with the oxygen sensor and the engine and the transmission but I’ve taken it to two different car places and paid each of them about $100 and neither can figure it out.
Luckily the road from my house to work is decently flat so I have no trouble getting there and back, though driving over the mountain pass to see my parents on the weekends has been interesting. I just have to pull over and let my car rest for a few minutes whenever the engine gives out and the I’m good as new!
Anyway, the real moral of this post is that while I actually really like this car (though the paint is rusting away and the air conditioner hasn’t worked in years), I still can’t imagine spending money on fixing it. Rationally, I know I need a working car to survive in this city, but my heart just doesn’t agree. The last thing my heart wants to spend money on is a car and I’m worried that in a few weeks or months I’ll have to make a decision. Do I do the absolute bare minimum to fix this old car or make an investment in a decently nice car that my boss won’t not so subtly tell me to replace because it makes him feel bad for me to look at it?
To me a car is a necessary evil to get me from point a to point b, should I change my thinking and buy a new car with nice paint or go with my gut and spend my money on better things like Roth IRAs and birthday presents? If it was up to me I’d drive this old one without fixing it until it really stopped working for good, but apparently other grownups don’t like the idea of my having to pull over on the side of the road for my car to rest every time I drive up the canyon.. UGH I JUST WANT TO LIVE IN A CITY WHERE I DONT NEED A CAR.
‘UGH I JUST WANT TO LIVE IN A CITY WHERE I DONT NEED A CAR.’
Obviously you should just move to England– where my PhD supervisor is in his late 30’s and doesn’t even have a driver’s license…