Last week, I had to say goodbye to my wonderful car. Another driver had decided to try his hand at drifting in my apartment's parking lot while heavily drunk. It didn't end well for the Nissan 350Z he had had only had for 3 months, or my parked Chevy Cobalt.

It was my second car. The first died an even more gruesome death (which also wasn't my fault), but that's another story. I've had it for just over three years now. It never failed me when I was commuting 60 miles from one side of Atlanta to the other every day for work. It followed me all the way to Arizona on a trailer. It took me up the Apache Trail several times. That's where all the mud you see came from.

Now that I hardly use it except to get groceries once in a while (I bike to work), I thought it would last forever, but the fact is, you can't keep anything safe. My avatar survived, though. Somehow he managed to stay on the dashboard through all that. You can see him lying sideways, right up against the inside of my windshield.

In case you're not good at identifying cars, mine is the one on the left. That's my front passenger-side wheel under the car. When it was shoved sideways over the curb, the entire wheel assembly down to the CV joint was ripped off.

I took lots of pictures, but this is the one that I think best captured the feeling of the scene.

[EmulsionCompulsion]

:S ouch!!... my condolences on your loss... :/

[tessfully]

Wow...what a bummer. I understand your feeling of loss and the fact you had no control and nothing to do with it makes it harder to accept. Your picture really captures your emotions.

[daacon]

Wow sorry to see this. That said sounds like she served you well and probably saved the other driver from hitting something with a heartbeat. I hope they have good insurance.

[SJM]

Ewww. yikes!!

[lesmore49]

Sad to see your loss. My daughter has had a Chevy Cobalt for three years. It's been great, nothing has gone wrong with it, it's comfortable...an extremely practical automobile.

[scratchpaddy]

Thanks for your condolences, everyone. It was a great car, but I'm really not as sad to see this one go as I was the first one. It's always hard to let the first one go. It was really something special: shiny alloy wheels, power everything, sunroof, spoiler... and I only got to have it for three months. This one was more "just a car."

I hope they have good insurance.

I believe they do, but it's still up in the air. He was too drunk and disoriented to give me his insurance before he was hauled off to the slammer, and I'm still waiting to hear back from the police about the satus of his insurance. Even if he doesn't, though, my insurance will go after him personally. He has the money. He was driving a car worth three times more than mine, and his brother drives a brand-new Corvette.

My daughter has had a Chevy Cobalt for three years. It's been great, nothing has gone wrong with it, it's comfortable...an extremely practical automobile.

It's a great starter car. Cheap, reliable, and great mileage. It doesn't try to hide the fact that it's a cheap car - it really shows in the interior - but I like the honesty of it. The only option on mine was the auto transmission. it had no power locks, no cruise control, no ABS, crank windows, etc. That last one always threw people. They would see the cranks on the doors, and they'd say, "I didn't even know they made cars with crank windows anymore!" They'd always walk out without locking their door, too, expecting me to hit some magic button that locks all the doors for them.

I really liked the ride it had. It had the smoothest ride of any compact I've ever driven. I used to work at a body shop, so I've driven lots.

It's actually kind of liberating. I have a clean slate, and I can choose any kind of car I want, within reason. So many choices!

[Kerrowdown]

Ouch, what a bummer, it's also all the inconvenience that goes along with it, when your trying to sort these things out.