Jen's ever-so-reliable, rock-solid Mercedes sedan is going away tomorrow. After four years and 40K miles, we're ending the lease. We'll drop it off at a nearby MBZ dealership...after which it will be thrown to the auto-auction wolves. Kind of a sad ending for such a great little car -- and interesting that Mercedes was unwilling to deal on a new one, given that a dealership person recently told me that MBZ has more than 100,000 cars coming off-lease in the next quarter. Good luck to them, I say. But this photo is a great way to remember this car -- a bit dirty, wheels covered in brake dust and ready at any time for a lengthy, high-speed trek.
Now, on to the new. Or sort of new. Jen found an incredible deal on a 2006 Volvo V70 wagon on Craigslist. A salesman at the local Volvo store in Santa Rosa wanted out of his lease on this near-perfect wagon, loaded with 22k miles on it. So we took over the lease, and she's gonna drive it for a year and then we'll probably dump it. It will be great for Jen's new business, and it seems fairly quick with the turbo 5-cylinder motor. It's a similar khaki green metallic color to our old, beloved Saab, which is kinda cool.
By the way, we're not getting a golden retriever anytime soon, but I do have my eye on a couple of Volvo-appropriate bumper stickers: "Save Mono Lake" and something from the Kucinich campaign are topping the list of must-haves.
Coming next month: the BMW gets replaced!
