hello,
well, i think this has been one of the most depressing days of my life. my rex was stolen last night. the day i finally got everything dialed in, the day i got my friggin check engine light to stop coming on, the day i pulled an eclipse, the day i passed 1,100 miles on the new engine. son of a bitch.
ya know, ive never got my car stolen before. actually, ive never had another car to steal other then my white rex. i guess theres gotta be a first time for everything. its a weird feeling to look at where your car should be and see nothing. i just kinda stood there wondering wtf was goin on and where the hell was my car. then my thoughts caught up with reality and i so eliquently said "fuck i think my car got stolen". all those countless hours being my cars mechanic, wasted. money spent for parts, gone. and what do i have to show for it? reciepts. mmmm all of a sudden, that word is the most wonderful word ive heard in a while. im soooo proud of myself that i put full coverage on my car. reciepts. full coverage. reciepts. full coverage.
You're describing shock. Sort of like when you find that someone has broken into your car. Although with a car-break in you also feel a sense of being violated.
I've had two cars stolen in my life. One was never recovered and the other was which is to say that they found it stripped down to the bare shell in an open field.
Oddly, both cars were 1969 VW Bug's. The first one was back in 1987 as I was entering my Senior year in College (dating myself here...). I had actually purchased the car for $50 (US) back in 1984 from a friend of my Dad's. It had no engine and it sported a three tone primer paint scheme. But the body was straight, rust free and very solid. For around $200 (US), I slapped in an engine, add another $75 (US) for the smog equipment (which was nothing more than a throttle positioner that was vacuum controlled....) and it was legal. That car saw me through college and it never let me down.
It also had a high performance Kraco AM/FM Cassette deck in the dash with kickin' 6 inch speakers in the doors...
Someone decided that they wanted the Kraco *really* bad thus the car was gone.
It would be another 6 years before I got another 1969 Bug. But between 1987 and 1993 is what I would consider my "discovery" years because my replacement car was in the form of a Fiat 124 Spider which got me through the rest of college and into my first sort-of real job after college where I decided to put myself into further debt by purchasing a brand new BMW 528e in 1988 (long story... but a very good investment and purchase as I kept that car up until 1998 where it still ran strong... had to sell it, though... too many cars...).
Other cars that entered my life in those years included a variety of VW's (air and water cooled...), a Datsun 510, the pair of Audi's and eventually the other 1969 Bug.
Other cars also entered our life between 1994 and to the present day... But the second 1969 VW Bug, (aka: "Jester") was my *fun* Bug. It was the car that I dropped a lot of $$$ and time into. Oddly, it was the first car I had owned in my own name where I tricked out, customized and installed high performance components (suspension and engine...).
In 1996, someone decided that they needed some parts for their Bug.
I also retained all the receipts on everything I had purchased for that car and I had lots of photos. There were a few things that I didn't have the receipts for because they were in the car but if it had a serial number, I had a copy of it. If it didn't have a serial number, I put one on it. I had to do this in order to prove the worth of the car to the insurance company. I also had to take the car down to an appraiser who also did an audit and assessment.
About two weeks had gone by before I got the call from the CHP who asked me to come down to the impound yard to identify the car. I remember having a sick feeling when I saw just the shell of the car sitting on a set of cinder blocks. They had gutted everything. The only thing they did not take was the front left fender because they managed to strip one of the fender bolts. I had to verify the VIN and then either take what was left of the car or sign it over to them. I signed it over (along with what seemed like a ton of paper work...) to them and I remember feeling sick afterwards.
My wife, always there for emotional support, joked "Well, at least we don't have to go through the hassle of smogging it next month". Smogging this car was always a chore. I had to drop the engine, pop in a stock 1600cc engine and take it down just so it would pass the visual. I have no doubt that what I had before would have passed the emission part but I guess we'll never know.
now that ive had about a day to think about crimes against humanity, injustice, the disorder of our times, slimjims, kill switches and viper alarms, id have to say that if i had it to do all over again, i would still buy a crx, work on it myself, bleed, sweat, drink and curse all over it, just to have pride in myself and in my car. and on top of that, it was deafinately worth the experience. in fact, with that experience, and the insurance money im gunna do it again. i loved driving that car. if i done it once. i can do it one more time. FUCKUM!
You need to also focus on the positives. Look at what you learned from this car and then how you plan to apply this knowledge to your next car whether it be another CRX or some other car. That is one of the greatest rewards I have when I look back at all the past cars and trucks I've owned and all the ones I've helped work on my entire life; the knowledge gained and more important all the very cool people I have met (and still keep in contact with today...).
that made me feel about 100% better.
regards,
chris jackson - phx, az
white crx dx
Anyway... again I am sorry to hear of your loss. As morbid as this sounds, I would rather hear of people's car losses from theft rather than from the result of a car accident. Cars can be replaced, good people can't. Please be sure to keep us up to date on what you are doing and so forth.
CRX Owners Group President (http://www.crx.org/southcal)
1990 Honda CRXsi (http://drive.to/jiggy)
ICQ # 3714283 (nickname: godzilla)
Mount Laguna Cruise (San Diego County) - September 2, 2002
http://www.crx.org/southcal/events.html
To see who all is coming: http://www.crx.org/southcal/rsvp.html
