Adventures with peddle.com, Part One
Today I started the process of selling a car with as little effort as possible. I have had a beloved car sitting in our parking lot since before the pandemic began: a 2000 Volkswagen GTI that I bought a number of years ago. I had always wanted to own a GTI, because they were the cars that my father preferred, and I have great memories of the purr of their engines. And this one didn’t disappoint: such a specific, German, pleasant rumbling.
What did disappoint, though, was the amount of work that the car needed, and the cost of that work. German cars will run and run even if they’re not well taken care of, but when you do need repairs, they’re on the pricier side due to having to import all the strange little parts. I don’t regret buying an older GTI. I’m still stunned that this car is running as well as it is, at 21 years old, but it has a serious leak somewhere in the dashboard and the floors fill with water and then mold happens and it’s horrible. I could keep fixing things, but I don’t have the drive to keep it happy, and so it’s time to just let go.
I’ve been doing a lot of “just letting go” this year.
I could put the GTI on Craigslist, deal with people coming over to take a look and haggling, but I don’t have the drive for that, either. Lindsay discovered peddle.com, a completely online “just f’ing get rid of your car” service, and I’m giving them a shot. They make deals with area repair and junk shops to come and remove cars that aren’t in great shape. You fill out a quick form, create an account, and they connect you with someone to come and get the car and pay you the amount that they think that the car is worth.
“Nick” just called while I was writing this, and is coming in a couple of hours to get the car! So I have definitely gone from worrying about this car for more than two years to removing it from the premises in a day. I’ll give my final thoughts next!