I rode the 23 mile each way ride to my girlfriend’s this weekend. Having sold my car the entire ride felt totally different. It was a great feeling to be totally self sufficient. I can’t explain it. I felt so empowered knowing that I made it the whole way there and back on my own power.

I purchased some cheap goggles off of the Internet. As soon as I put them on they fogged up. I was riding by and saw a ski store and decided to stop in and check out some goggles. When I was in there they talked me into sport glasses. I like the idea of smaller glasses that don’t limit my vision. These glasses have interchangeable lenses: clear for night riding, regular sunglasses, and polarized. So far they seem to work fine, but by some fluke it’s been between 40 and 60 degrees. That’s right. It’s 60 degrees today! It’s going to be back down to 31 for a high tomorrow. How weird.

I’m still not used to not having a car. I had a car for 11 years. I feel like it’s in the shop or something, and I’ll be getting it back soon. I have so many habits I had formed that I am now forced to break. I often get a thought like, maybe I’ll go to Fuddruckers for lunch or maybe I’ll head over to the beer distributor. Then I remember it’s not as easy as it once was. You’ll most like see a post about time management and being carless.

Speaking of future posts, I think now is a good time to do series about why I have gone car-free.

My motivations in order of importance are: financial, environmental, for the love of riding, and health. I would say that love of riding and health are about equal.

I am going to explore different facets of each over the next week or two.

I’m also going to start some kind of daily update about the ride conditions, my health conditions, etc. I haven’t figured out the specifics yet. All in good time.

Picture by flattop341 Used by permission. Creative Commons.

I officially sold my car yesterday. It was actually a sad moment. I didn’t expect it to be such a sad moment. It wasn’t sad because of the experiment I’m about to launch into; that’s exciting. It was sad because I really did love that car. Frank Sinatra was only my second car. I had it for almost exactly six years. At one point, when I was in grad school, I basically lived out of my car. I drove 3 hour drives four times a week.

I guess it’s time to move on. The experiment has finally begun.

The other good news?

I had $1000 in my savings. My second credit card balance was $661. I kept looking at the money in my savings knowing I could kill the entire credit card in one fell swoop, so I did. I paid off my second card! I also paid $250 towards my third one. Now I’ll be able to pay $500/mo towards my third. I’m guessing I’ll have it paid off in five to six months. Then I’ll be free to plow into my college loans.

I have decided to not donate the car. I just couldn’t get comfortable with the idea. Not with the idea of donating, I would love to donate my car to someone that needs it. I wouldn’t want to donate it to some faceless organization, and I wouldn’t want to donate it to someone on craigslist. I thinik I would only give my car to someone I know.  Thanks for your input.

Otherwise, I’ve been busy trying to sell Frank Sinatra the Elantra. Yesterday I  lowered the price, and I have received eight or nine emails already. I have one response that is very serious. I’m meeting the buyer at a mechanic today. She was saying to bring the title. She wants to get it over with today! The car was technically a gift, so that means my dad has the title. He will be able to meet us tomorrow to get everything squared away.

So if all goes well with the mechanic I may be carfree as soon as tomorrow!

At this point it feels like what I would imagine trying to quit herion cold turkey would feel like. A large part of me wants to do this. I’m excited to reap the financial, health, and environmental benefits. I’m excited to prove that it can be done. Then there is the other side of me. That’s the side that’s been driving for the last month. The one that keeps convincing me to drive while I have the car. This is the side of me that has never done anything like this. The side of me that is worried my girlfriend will get exasperated with having to drive more. The side of me that, quite frankly, likes driving. I like how much less time it takes. I like that I can put the heater on. I know that I will like riding my bike too once i get back into it. This other side of me is saying, “you’re getting sick. It’s a cold rain today, and you want to sell your car!”

Used by permission on Creative Commons

Just to catch up possible new readers. I have decided to sell my car. I posted it to Craigslist about two weeks ago and now I’m in the process of selling it.

I have been getting some emails, but nothing has panned out yet. I have a few emails that have left me their numbers; I need to call them back.

I received an interesting email about it yesterday. A man from NY asked if I would donate it to his family. He then told me a story about how his house was destroyed in a tornado in AR and now his four year old daughter is in and out of the hospital with kidney surgery. I am usually a skeptical person. WithCraigslist I am especially so.

He sent me digital pictures of his town destroyed after the tornado. I also had him send me pics of the hospital discharge files.

He says they are Christians. I am a Christian too.

Honestly, the idea of donating my car to someone that truly needs it is a very appealing idea. I am wary though. I don’t want it to turn to be a scam. I can’t post the emails here. i want to respect his privacy, but they seem legit. I even ran a google search of his name and it came up with a few legitimate sites linking him to the town he’s in now. I guess if you ran that type racket you’d have your whole story figured out though.

What do you think? Should I donate the car? How else can I verify he’s telling me the truth? Would someone go through all of that trouble for cars that are not 100%?

I was talking with some friends about it and they said you can’t just give a car away. I’d have to sell it for $1 or some crap like that. That opened another can of worms. I’ve never sold a car. Who pays for the notary for a title transfer? Will the buyer pay the taxes? What other hidden fees are there in selling a car? Any advice?

I posted my car on Craigslist last week. Since that time I’ve had three or four emails. No one has come to look at the car yet. I am going to be more agressive about selling it this week. I’ll let you know what happens.

This evening I put on all of my winter gear, turned on my blinkies, and rode off into the dark, cold night. Like I said in my previous post, riding in the cold isn’t that bad. It’s all about the gear. I feel like I’ve done a decent job of getting appropriate gear.

Still, I started to second guess myself when rubber hit the rode. Can I do this any time I need to go somewhere? Is the money saved really worth the winter riding? Can’t I just wait until Spring? It helped me put things into perspective.

I’m at a critical juncture. My car has been posted on Craigslist. I already have two offers (though with Craigslist you can’t take offers too seriously). If I am going to decide to not sell the car then this is the time.

As I was riding along in the cold I started thinking about some of my original posts in this blog. This is back when I thought the car would never be drivable. I laid out all of the arguements as to why I should sell my car. I’m clinging to those arguments. I’m selling the car. Money is still my top priority here. I can’t wait to see how much money I will save! Excercise, the environment, and, honestly, this blog are other reasons I’m selling my car. Combined, these are still enough of a reason for me to go car-free. I’ll find a way to make it work despite the obstacles, uh hem, cold.

Then I thought about all of the comments in this blog. Many of them were from people that have already gone carless. They all said similar things. “You won’t believe how much you save,” “It’ll work.” All the more inspiration!

So no more time for second guessing. Now it’s time for action.

Everyone knows the benefits of owning a car. You can cover long distances. You can attract the opposite sex. You can go up to make-out hill. You can use your trunk as storage space. Now you can offcially buy my car.

I was actually looking in the want ads and someone wanted a car for cheap, so I wrote an email explaining the car. I figured it was good enough for the actual post, so the post is actually an email I wrote to a girl. That’s why it’s a little more personal and less bullet points than I expected. Oh well, let’s hope the car sells!

You can pretty much bank on gas, insurance, and if you’re a good car owner, oil changes. But there are the expenses that slip by. A coworker instant messaged me today that he is getting new tires after only 23,000 miles. They are $400. Wowsers! $400 for new tires! New bike tires are $100 if you want decent ones.

I pay $75/yr for AAA. That’s not much, but for me that’s three month’s electricity.

When he sent me that message it motivated me. It reminded me of why I wanted to do this. To elminate all of costs of owning a car that I forgot about.

Tonight is the night! Craigslist, Vehix, here we come! The time to be lazy is over!

I haven’t been writing much. That’s because I feel like I don’t have anything to say. I’ve been driving a lot. I haven’t posted my car to sell it yet. I only ride about one day a week. You should be sad for me because I’ve been slow to move. But please don’t worry; I haven’t lost my vision. I will post my car this week.

At first my excuse was I’ll just drive until I sell the car. Then I just kept putting off posting it. It’s been over a month now. I’m basically back to how I was before the transmission blew out.

At this point I just want to try this experiment to see if I can do it. I had a commenter say that he didn’t think he could do it and second guessed himself. I want to see if I can get passed all of that and to the point where I don’t miss my car either.

My next post will be about how I posted the car. Honestly, I’m not expecting more than a few hundred for it. After a while I might just donate it.

I couldn’t resist! “Current Balance as of Today”…$0.00!

Well, as far as the car goes. I still have it and I’m still driving it. I cleaned it and took pictures. I just need to upload it. I have no excuse.