My Geo Metro is clean – no doubt.

But once in a while I get to wondering: what would it be like to own a normal shiny new vehicle?  My Metro is getting up in miles (just over 218,000 currently) and the clutch is going to need to be replaced soon, so I went online to Kelly Blue Book to do some serious research into the matter.   Their handy-dandy value calculator only went back as far as 1992, but let’s roll with it…here’s what it came back with:

The depressing Kelly Blue Book Value for my Geo Metro

$305.00 for a trade-in average? Doh!!!

That didn’t seem like a lot to me.  Frankly, I had people walk up and offer me over $1500 on at least two occasions, so I was a little depressed with the results.

But I pressed on anyway – for shits and giggles – and tried to find place that would buy it outright.  The closest place that would consider taking my car for other than scrap was like 60 minutes away.  So I did the math:  What would I actually make on trading my car in?  Well for starters the gas to get there wouldn’t be much since this is, after all, a 45 MPG car.  So let’s just say it’s $8.00:

• $8.00 – Gas

Then there’s my time.  I’m a freelance programmer, and if I’m getting steady work I’m making around $50.00 per hour on the low-side.  So let’s figure 2 hours to make the trip there and back, and another hour to seal the deal for 3 Hours total.  That’s $150:

• $150.00 – Time (3 Hours @ $50.00)
• $8.00 – Gas

$158.00 total to sell my car.  Minus that off of the trade-in value and we’re talking about $147.00!  That’s bullshit man!

So I guess I’ll be keeping my super-clean, blue 1989 2-Door Hatchback Geo Metro a little longer.  I really don’t know if I’ll ever sell it to be honest, but it’s fun to fantasize sometimes.