On Friday 25th March the Cavalier was towed away by the local ‘end of life vehicle centre’ to be turned into a metal cube. When it reached their depot it was set to be ‘de-polluted’: which involves removing the battery, wheels, all glass and plastic components, fuel, oil, coolant and brake fluid; before the metal is separated from any remaining other materials to be shredded. Suffice to say that it is no more.
Deciding how to part company with a car whose upkeep had become too pricey was a tough call. I had thought about selling or part-exchanging the car, but from my research found that I'd have done well to get £50 for it - even before the MOT ran out! Besides, it was hard to imagine the car being driven by anyone else after having been in my family's possession for the entirety of it's existence. I could also have sent it direct to a scrapyard for little or no return. Then I heard about an organisation called Give a Car, through whom you can donate a car to charity. Allegedly they get something for even the worst of old bangers - paid out to them for the parts and scrap metal by an end of life vehicle centre. It’s a surreal thought that my ageing motor is no more and that it has been converted into a few pennies to help improve the lives of African street kids (still waiting for the receipt to prove this though!).
I had originally planned to be there when it was towed away and even took a day off work to allow for this. This idea was scuppered, however, when the recovery truck broke down and my car could no longer be collected that day! I decided that this meant that it wasn't meant to be and rearranged the collection for another day whilst I was out at work. Part of me would have liked to have gone along to see the full de-polluting/scrapping process to the very end, but part of me was glad to have nothing to do with the process at all. Would I have coped with seeing it towed in person? The car may not have been the only thing that could have been described as 'a wreck' in such a scenario! Having sat on my drive for 3 full weeks without an MOT, it was sadly something of a relief when the car was finally taken away. And now all I have of the Cavalier are a couple of souvenirs: one of the keys and some bits of the paintwork.
The Stats:
275,012 miles
March 1994 - March 2011
3 owners, 1 family
Since I last posted here I have spent many times the car’s value on attempting to keep the rust at bay, but it has now reached the time to admit that the rust is endemic and cannot be defeated without continuing to spend at the same rate, which would be silly at best. When the car failed it’s MOT on 21st February with 274,147 miles on the clock and a whole 11 days left of the previous year’s MOT, there was only one thing to do.
275,000 was the goal – the (somewhat unnecessary?) mileage top-up operation had begun. For the next week and a half I constantly sought to add extra distance to journeys wherever possible: volunteering for errands, taking the scenic route, even going for a drive in my spare time (generally all by myself... but it was ok, I took an audiobook!). I even renewed the road tax to allow for 4 extra days motoring in the vehicle that had been in the family since new. Finally on 4th March 2011, with my MOT expiring at 23:59, the milestone was reached, allowing me to retire the car in a much happier state of mind.
*A Postscript:
If you think that the above account is beyond comprehension, perhaps you missed the original 2009 blog posts. If so, read on below, you’ve a hold lot of catching up to catch up on. Oh boy. If you still think that I’m a little crazy after reading that, well, you’re probably right.
