167,452 miles

That's the miles I've logged on my beloved 1996 VW Golf over the almost 13 years I've had it. I've finally decided to sell my beloved Golf. I've always said that I'd drive it into the ground but I just feel that it's time to move on since I have another newer car...a perky 2005 Toyota RAV-4. I've had the RAV-4 for 2 years now and I kept thinking the Golf gotta give out at some point. Wrong! To give perspective, that mileage is over 6.5 times around the earth if you want to lay it all out. It's been in 27 different states and several long road trips. It's been off road numerous times, drove on woods roads (that's a road in the woods that isn't improved at all but rather just the vegetation has been removed), and battled blizzards and torrential downpours. It survived an earthquake. Granted it was like a 5 on the richter scale and the center of the earthquake was an hour away.

When you drive one car was such a long time, you sort of become one with it. You know exactly how much room it takes up and what it was do in the snow and mud and other hazardous conditions. I know when something is not right even when it's just a feeling. Like the mini crisis when the tranny was going. Thankfully it was still under warranty so VW got me a new one for free! So in reality, the tranny has only gone a youthful 68K miles or so. The only time it ever broke down on me, while on the road, was when the battery died....at a gas station. It didn't start after I got gas. How thoughtful of it!

It was a bit sad peeling off all the stickers that are like 12+ years old. There's a lot of memories there. I just hope whoever the next owner is that they are good to it and don't curse its quirks that make up every almost vintage car. I'm letting my dad and bro handle the sale since they've done this a bunch of times and they won't have the emotion that I would handing off the keys to the new owners.