The New Addition
Posted by Jim Zeiser on Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Last week at this time I was in the process of buying another car. Not just any car mind you, it's the Official Car of the Family. That automobile is the stellar 2005 Scion xB. This body style was made for only three years and resembles a box on wheels. Think Kia Soul only squarer. After 2007 the xB got bigger and lost the original cuteness, becoming almost mini-truck like. Nissan captured the essence in its Cube and Kia refined it a little with the Soul but the early version xB is, in my opinion, is the style Toyota should have kept with. It could have been a legend like the original VW Beetle.
I previously owned an xB that was the same color but it met a tragic end with a State Snow Plow. I lived, but the car wasn't so fortunate. We now have three of them in the stable with Sara driving the senior edition built in August of 2004 and with 212,000 miles on the odometer. All three run like new and are fairly solid, not just for ten year old cars but for any car.
Here's the best thing about it. As I spoke to the seller he revealed that he is a motorcyclist. Not only him but his wife too. He has cared for the car over the years like it was a motorcycle performing all the scheduled maintenance on time. His local garage is literally behind his backyard. He had but to drive it around the block to reach it and then walk through their yard to get home. I only had to drive it a short distance to determine that it was sound and bought it on the spot. The owner was quite pleased that I simply handed him a deposit and said I would return the next day with the balance. it has a manual five speed transmission, a family staple, and vehicles equipped with that are generally a hard sell. Not to our group as we all are shifty characters. It was the first requirement on the list and all but sealed the deal.
We name all our cars and it wasn't long before Sara came up with its new title. She named it Laird after a character on the defunct series "Carpoolers" and it fits. So we now have Tillie, Owen and Laird the xBs in the stable. I figure we'll have them a good, long time.
I previously owned an xB that was the same color but it met a tragic end with a State Snow Plow. I lived, but the car wasn't so fortunate. We now have three of them in the stable with Sara driving the senior edition built in August of 2004 and with 212,000 miles on the odometer. All three run like new and are fairly solid, not just for ten year old cars but for any car.
Here's the best thing about it. As I spoke to the seller he revealed that he is a motorcyclist. Not only him but his wife too. He has cared for the car over the years like it was a motorcycle performing all the scheduled maintenance on time. His local garage is literally behind his backyard. He had but to drive it around the block to reach it and then walk through their yard to get home. I only had to drive it a short distance to determine that it was sound and bought it on the spot. The owner was quite pleased that I simply handed him a deposit and said I would return the next day with the balance. it has a manual five speed transmission, a family staple, and vehicles equipped with that are generally a hard sell. Not to our group as we all are shifty characters. It was the first requirement on the list and all but sealed the deal.
We name all our cars and it wasn't long before Sara came up with its new title. She named it Laird after a character on the defunct series "Carpoolers" and it fits. So we now have Tillie, Owen and Laird the xBs in the stable. I figure we'll have them a good, long time.
null
If you wish to comment my e-mail address is h1500e@hotmail.com. I'd like to hear anything-good or bad-that anyone would like to say. As they said in college, we're all lifelong learners.
