indyfabz

Thanks.

My family didn't own a car after I graduated high school in 1983. I had gone to prep school out of state, so I was considered a 10% driver. When I moved back home, my mom's insurance coverage was going to go way up because I was going to be attending college about 1.5 miles from home. She could not afford it. I eventually bought her a car in 1995. The salesman couldn't believe we had no trade in. When we told him we hadn't owned a car in 12 years he asked, "How did you survive?". Living in a major American city with extensive public transportation certainly helped. Mom would occasionally borrow a sister's car. And on a few occasions, we rented when we really needed one.

Mom aged and my grandparents entered a suburban nursing home. A public transit ride out there involved two bus rides and one el train ride each way. It became too much for mom, so I bought and paid for the car. She paid the insurance, which was low because no one else was living in the house. (Insurance rates in Philly at the time were insanely high, primarily due to the fact that a lot of people had no insurance.). I would borrow it on the weekends in season, mostly to drive to the starts of bike rides outside the city.

When mom was no longer capable of driving safely, she turned title over to me. Someone eventually totaled the thing while it was parked outside of my GF's parents' house in NJ. It was just over 18 years old and had just over 108,000 miles on it. My current Subaru, which I bought right around this time 7 years ago, is 150 miles short of 21,000 miles. I am 58. It's only the second car I have ever owned.