This Old Car

If you’re an HGTV fan like me, then I’m sure you’ve heard of This Old House, a show about restoring historical homes to their former glory. Another favorite of mine was If Walls Could Talk where shocking discoveries were made. In both series, the homes had lots of stories to tell.

The same could be said of our good ol’ 1996 Saturn SL1. Today was a sad day. We sold the Saturn. This car was a blessing to us in so many ways, however, we knew when we bought it that we’d only have it for a season. We bought it, it did its job, and it was time to sell it.

In the short year and a half we owned this car, it allowed us to do so many things we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. The biggest advantage in purchasing this car was that my husband Jeremy learned to do mechanic work, and he became extremely good at it. (If he hadn’t done so, this car would’ve either been a giant money pit or wouldn’t have been running most of the time!) His ability to work on cars has continued to save us money many times over and has even become a successful stream of income.

Along this journey, we collected many stories. Here are just a few…

Shortly after purchasing the car, it started to bother Jeremy that it was several different shades of green. He really wanted it to be one color. He didn’t have any luck matching the existing paint color, so he decided to start over. When in doubt on what color to paint something, he always defaults to black. He also stumbled upon an interesting kind of black paint – truck bed liner (the kind of paint that’s got a rough texture so it grips well, and things don’t slide around in the bed of a pickup). To be completely honest, I wasn’t expecting much. But that car looked like a million bucks when he was done!

After the car was painted, we learned a couple of things pretty quickly. The first was that the paint was hail proof. Not only had it gotten rid of existing hail damage, but the rough layer the paint provided kept it from getting any additional dings or dents. Fantastic! Another plus (or so we thought) was that since the paint was slightly more protective, it actually increased the crash test rating from 3- to 4-star! (I’m not sure if that’s true, but it was funny to think of it like that!) Jeremy was also pleasantly surprised to learn one afternoon that if your vehicle doesn’t have clear coat, the salesmen at the Kroger gas station won’t try to sell you their clear coat protector product. It was like he’d been granted immunity, and he loved it!

Jeremy and I enjoy going to garage sales on Saturday mornings during the spring and summer. We find a lot of fantastic deals on items we wouldn’t dare spend the money to buy new at a store. We’ve gotten some amazing deals too! One particular Saturday morning, we were out garage sale surfing and hit a massive pothole. It was the kind where you hold your breath and hope fixing the damage you just incurred didn’t cost too much. But we were in the Saturn, so we weren’t really worried about it. Except as soon as we hit the rut in the road, what came flying up in the air was a piece of the dashboard that was cracked and had finally broken off. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed that hard in my life. We had to pull over because we were laughing so hard and couldn’t see through the tears. That was definitely one of the funniest things I’ve ever experienced in my life!

I learned a very valuable lesson in having this car – contentment. The grass is always greener on the other side. There’s always something nicer and more luxurious to drive. But when I drove this car, I was just grateful I didn’t have to carpool or walk. It sparked something in me that had been buried by all the new and shiny things. When you don’t have a lot, you have one of two choices. You can long for the things you think you need or you can become happy with what you have now.

While there wasn’t much to it, the Saturn got us from Point A to Point B, which reminds me of another story! We actually named the car “Point B” since we weren’t sure if it would get us to where we wanted to go at first. But somehow it always did! (Jeremy also joked about installing a bike rack on the top so we’d always have a “Plan B.” My hubby is so clever.)

I hope when faced with a choice between contentment and covetousness, you will choose to be thankful for what you have.