| Back in 2000 when I was looking for my first car, | | | | the scrap heap – I might as well cut my |
| I decided to buy my Subaru because it was neat | | | | losses and buy a newer car that would need less |
| and compact, with a small engine and low running | | | | maintenance and would, in the long term, save |
| costs. I was just out of university, struggling along | | | | me money. |
| in my first job, and the second-hand three-door | | | | I used the classified ads in the local paper both to |
| little car was the best I could manage at the time. | | | | sell my Subaru and look for a new car. It was a |
| Although I’ve since moved on from that job | | | | new experience for me; I had bought my first |
| and am now paid a respectable salary, out of | | | | car from a family friend as I knew he was giving |
| some bizarre kind of loyalty to my first car – | | | | me a good deal and it would be in good condition, |
| which, in all fairness, has never caused me any | | | | so I’d never had to negotiate the endless |
| great problems – I refused to sell my Subaru | | | | questions of model, age, space, safety record, |
| and kept it as its value depreciated and it became | | | | fuel efficiency, price and colour that confronted |
| less and less practical. But since it continued to | | | | me when I scanned the listings. In the end I |
| run, I also reasoned that there was no reason to | | | | decided my requirements (five door hatchback, |
| look for a new car, employing the maxim, ‘if | | | | no more than five years old), and made a set of |
| it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ I don’t | | | | fairly arbitrary decisions to narrow it down further. |
| do many long journeys so didn’t feel justified | | | | I had several inquiries from people wanting to buy |
| in shelling out for a new car, with all the the | | | | my Subaru, though one or two were put off |
| associated financial and environmental costs. I | | | | when they saw it. I did everything I could (within |
| figured I’d just run it into the ground and hold | | | | reason) to make it more attractive, from the |
| onto it for as long as I could. | | | | obvious clean and polish to replacing the worn old |
| I decided to sell my Subaru Impreza when I took | | | | windscreen wipers and filling it with petrol as an |
| it into the garage for its last service. When I | | | | incentive. I finally found my Subaru buyer – a |
| realised that the money I would need to spend on | | | | student looking for a first car, who wasn’t |
| it over the next couple of years to ensure it kept | | | | too worried about the long-term potential as long |
| passing its MOTs would be greater than the value | | | | as it got her to the end of her course. I felt it |
| of the car itself, I bit the bullet and looked for a | | | | had found its rightful home and was pleased that |
| Subaru buyer. Selling my Subaru was a sorry | | | | I’d managed to get something for it, even if |
| decision but it made no sense to keep pouring | | | | it wasn’t much. |
| cash into a car that was ultimately destined for | | | | |