My Car

This month my 4 year lease on my Nissan 350Z is up so I thought I'd share some fond memories. When I first got it all of you thought I had gone off the deep end (except my mom who still fondly refers to her Camaro). But I thought, Why not? I'd driven a sensible, economic Sentra for 10 years and was ready for something with more power than a golf cart. For anyone that missed the story of the Sentra's demise... I made a U-turn while going 70 mph on the freeway. Obviously it was not on purpose and the suspension as well as the body had considerable damage. I was not hurt (nor was anyone else involved) so Mike viewed it as Christmas (he hated the Sentra). We went to every type of car dealer, told them we wanted to buy a car that very weekend and they were all very eager. I would have preferred the blue color but there wasn't one available in south Florida. So I ended up with a red Z!

I am proud to say I have only gotten 1 speeding ticket in it and have only had to change 1 tire. The most interesting story doesn't even involve me driving it. One evening it was parked in the driveway and the fedex man came to deliver a package. As he went to pull out of the driveway I heard a horrifying crunch. He had managed to slowly back into the left front corner of my car. I immediately called the police to come make a report and the driver was very apologetic and worried about his job. I told him that it was an accident and there was nothing to do about it now but that I did want a report due to the amount of damage. So I got my report and started calling my insurance company as well as fedex.

The next day Mike's good friend Mack dropped me off at the body shop where the car had been towed to and I got my rental car. It was 3 weeks before I would get my car back. It had a total of $2500 of damage. The entire front bumper, side panel and mirror all had to be replaced. The fun began with trying to get fedex to pay for it. Even armed with a police report saying the car was parked in my driveway they still didn't want to pay. I couldn't even get them to return my calls. Eventually my insurance company had to sue them and I got my deductible returned about 5 months later. What a mess.

I will miss this car but it just doesn't seem like a good plan to buy it with the miles on it and it not being a very sensible car to haul anything larger than my purse. But I'll always have my memories of my little red sports car...