So long, Dory… welcome, Wilma

On By wanderingcatyarns

As alluded to in previous posts… I’ve been on the hunt for a new vehicle. Last month, I took Dory in for some possible brake work, and the mechanic called me a short time later. He told me not to put another dime into her and start looking for another vehicle. The sub-frame was rotted. It was time to say goodbye.

Now I really can’t complain. Dad gave her to me back in 2018 (he’d had her from new). She had a mysterious coolant leak, but as long as I kept any eye on it, and kept it topped up she’d be just fine. Though he warned me not to hope to get much more than a year or two out of her. The car I was driving (Dave’s old Buick) was barely roadworthy, so even a vehicle that lasted a year or two was a step up.

In the end… Dave and I accidentally found the coolant leak while boosting the Bonneville. That, along with other repairs normal for her age (she was born in 2008), saw her last me almost six years. She had 210,000 km on the speedometre when I got her, and more than 320,000 km by the time I had to say goodbye) Not bad at all.

But it was time to put her out to pasture. So, the weekend before last, Dave and I went out, and set things in motion for a new vehicle. This weekend, everything was finalized and we went to pick it up. For convenience, we traded Dory in for her scrap value. And I’m not going to lie… leaving without her made me feel a little sad. Kind of like we abandoned her there.

But… we did come home with Wilma.

She’s a 2014 Jeep Cherokee. Ten years old, but with fairly low mileage and in good condition for her age. And still the newest vehicle I’ve ever had. She’s a little smaller than Dory, with a touch less cargo space – but still enough room to haul plants and dirt. She doesn’t have a trailer hitch, so we’ll be installing one so I can still pull my box trailer when needed.

I’ve only had her since Saturday, so I’m still getting used to all her new fangled things… (like a 9-speed transmission that shifts when I’m not expecting it) but I think she and I are going to get along just fine. (And I have already ordered her a Hello Kitty sticker for the back window – just like Dory’s)

11 thoughts on “So long, Dory… welcome, Wilma”

  2. cindyannb99

    Welcome to Wilma! Hopefully you will love her just the same …. esp after getting a Hello Kitty sticker! (I have a Hello Kitty sticker on my back window but it’s about baseball) – now you just need to go buy a big haul of plants or something to break her in … yeah …. that’s it!

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  3. I get the feels whenever we have to get rid of a car. It’s so sad. When Mini got murdered by a tree I felt like I needed grief counseling lol…Wilma is very pretty and a JEEP! I love Jeeps. Do people put rubber ducks on them like they do here? All the jeeps have windshields filled with them that people have left them. I think that is so cool.

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  5. Betsy Saathoff Queen

    Bye-bye Dory! Rest in peace. I get sad when saying goodbye to a vehicle too but Wilma is a very pretty replacement. She’s beautiful and a JEEP! We also have the whole the duck thing going on here too. People leave them on windshields and door handles and then the owner puts them on the dash. Some have 50+ on their dash!

    I hope you enjoy Wilma for a long time to come.
    Blessings,
    Betsy

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  10. Congratulations on your new wheels; welcome to Wilma!

    Our last 3 vehicles have gone to family: two cars to the kids as they graduated from college, and I sold our old minivan to my brother. So they didn’t go far.

    Our eldest son got our 2003 Lexus sedan in 2010; he just traded it in for a newer used car last year. It had a good long run.

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