(Written by kencraw)

I suffered a tragic loss on May 19th. I was driving down to the Bay Area to pick up some solar film for my telescope for the eclipse on the 20th, when I hit traffic on I-80 coming into Richmond. Apparently the idiot two cars back didn’t see all the brake lights because he plowed pretty hard into the car behind me, sending him flying into me, turning me 90 degrees to the left and into the median. The airbags deployed. 2 of the 3 bikes on the trailer hitch mounted bike rack went flying, which was to their benefit, as the lone bike that remained got crushed between the two cars. All of my sailing gear in the trunk was “redistributed” and much of it damaged.

But bikes and sailing gear are not the loss that trouble me.

My ’97 Jetta was my first self-purchased car. I bought it used from a friend of the family in December of 1998 when I graduated from college. I promptly proceeded to abuse that car in every way imaginable. I put a trailer hitch on it to tow small sailboats, growing up to towing a power boat that weighed as much as it did. I’d take it to home depot and load it up with stuff in ways no one would imagine. I would literally get people who would stop and watch me load up the Jetta wondering how (and I think secretly hoping I would fail so they could laugh) I was going to get all that stuff in there. My Jetta never failed me.

Then there was the incident where I brought home a 10′ tall Christmas tree in the trunk with the seat down. Only about 3′ was hanging out the back because I got the bottom of the trunk about 7′ inside the car. When my neighbor saw me pull it out of the car, he fell to his knees laughing asking what kind of clown car that was. He said the tree looked bigger than the car once it was out of the trunk.

The car was so versatile and so abuse-able that in 2006 I wrote a post on my personal blog lauding it while complaining about my 2002 Accord.

But just as important were the road-trips it took. This is the car I used while I was working for Rivals to both get to Berkeley and to go to the road games. It’s been to 6 of the 10 Pac-10 stadiums (Arizona, ASU, UCLA, USC, Stanford and Cal). Although I’ve driven to both Oregon and OSU, interestingly the Jetta was never taken for those trips.

It made countless trips to Berkeley to go to mid-week practices. In the early years it took me to every game. As the family grew, the Accord and later the Odyssey took over those duties, but it still came to multiple games each year when the whole family wasn’t coming to the game. It’s most recent trip was to the Spring game at Edwards field. Sadly that was it’s last trip to Berkeley.

Somewhere around 3/4ths of the OTRH podcasts and just about all of the Rivals podcasts, minus the few I flew to the games, were recorded from within it’s cabin.

A handful of those road trips included suicide missions/side-trips as both me and the Jetta were always a glutton for punishment. Some of you may remember my ASU/Grand Canyon write-up.

Over the years, the Jetta showed it’s wear. Unbeknownst to me, it had become an icon both with my coworkers and my Church friends. After the crash, I heard it referred to as “legendary”, “unflappable” and “the trooper”. It’s a running joke that I had left the windshield cracked for the last 7 or 8 years, because the last time I fixed it, not three weeks later it got another crack from an errant rock from a truck. “God likes to keep me humble” I would jovially answer when people asked me when I was going to get that fixed.

It had been my plan to drive that car into the ground until it would no longer run. It had run for 188k miles without significant mechanical problems (I think a new starter motor was the largest repair it needed). I have another 7 years before my eldest son is old enough to drive. I fully expected that car to make it that long.

But now that dream is over.

No, the Jetta was not going to go softly into the night. I think it was destined for a tragic death, where its last act was a sacrificial one, keeping safe its 3 passengers (me and my two eldest sons) during the crash that would send it to its grave. After 14 1/2 faithful years of service, it wasn’t going to let me down in its final moments.

I now own a 2012 Toyota Tacoma Double Cab. It’s very nice. It’s got some neat features in the cab that my Jetta never had. It tows easier. It hauls a lot more. It’s very comfortable.

And as nice as it is, it’s not my beloved Jetta and I fear it will never be. The days of 30 mpg are long gone even though I got the small engine, the 2×4 instead of the 4×4, and the non off-road suspension. It’s basically the most fuel efficient 5-seater truck on the market and yet I’ll be lucky to get 25 mpg.

And it doesn’t have the memories. Perhaps in 15 years I’ll be exclaiming the greatness of my Tacoma, but it’s got a very high bar to clear to be as beloved as my Jetta, this new truck of mine.

Goodbye my faithful servant, my ’97 Jetta!

“For I am even now ready to be sacrificed: and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day.”

2nd Timothy 4:6-8