The cult of the Subaru

I sold my car last Friday. I was a little sad to say goodbye to my Subaru, which I've had for 8 years, and which has been in my family since 1992 (it's a family heirloom), but mostly I was relieved.

I had been dreading the selling process. What do I know about cars? Plus, I had no idea how much a 15 year old Subaru Legacy was worth, particularly one that seemed to be leaking various fluids, had a small hole over the wheel, and had been making a disturbing sound.

My first idea was to get someone else to sell it for me, but when that failed (no one else seemed to want to sell a 15 year old Subaru either), I phoned a few dealers to figure out how much I should ask for it. Answers varied widely from the one dealer who suggested I donate it to charity, to the helpful guy who kept referring to it as "vintage" (I told you it was an heirloom). The helpful guy suggested a price which I thought was reasonable, so I just went with that.

Next I tried to post an ad online. My first attempt was less than successful, since the place I posted it took over a week to get it online! (I can post this blog instaneously!!!!). When I found out how long it was going to take (after I had paid money for the ad), I decided to post it on one of the free sites. That took less then a minute, and three hours later I had 4 inquiries about the car.

Still nervous, I asked my friend S to come over and keep me company when the the prospective buyers came to look at the car.

I needn't have worried.

The first prospective buyer was under the back end of the car before I even had my coat on. Turns out he's a professional rally car driver with a penchant for vintage Subaurus. Apparently he has 6 of the same model, and he showed up in one of them.

Even better, he was from Alberta, so we had a short western bonding session. While he took the car for a test drive, S and I learned all about the world of professional rally driving from his girlfriend, who is also a professional driver. Some of my questions: What is rally driving? (It's off track road racing, sometimes in the winter on ice and snow) Where do you practice off track road racing? (You can rent roads - who knew?) Would you use my car for this? (No - it would be a "street car").

We also learned about drift racing (Which E tells me is the subject of a Fast and the Furious movie), and a whole sub-culture of driving-related television shows, which the driver and girlfriend host.

The next guy who came to look at the car also participated in Subaru events: he races them on the track.

He was very interested in the car, and is now the new owner, much to the disappointment of the first race car driver (he kept contacting me to see if the sale had fallen through), and to the list of prospective buyers who saw the ad a week later when it was finally posted on the other site, after I had sold the car.

Since I kept the car for 10 days after I had promised it to the 2nd guy, I ended up keeping a list of people who wanted the car in case the sale fell through. One guy was so persistent that he offered to be at my house in an hour with the cash.

Apparently I should have asked for more money.