Goodbye Old Friend

Marc Kadish, Attorney-in-Residence and Contributing Editor said fare thee well to his impractical practical car. It's heartbreaking for sure, but not when the shock absorbers breakdown for the very last time. 

Mini Cooper

The old friend was a 2012 two seat Mini Cooper convertible.The model is not made anymore – replaced by the more familiar 4 seat model.In the almost 13 years we owned the car, we saw less than five on the Chicago streets and highways. It only had 46,000 miles on the odometer when it met its demise. 

It was wildly impractical. It was as big as a large golf cart. It’s so low to the ground it was useless during and after a snowstorm.It used premium gas and was very expensive to repair – which happened often. On a highway you felt like a small bug which could be crushed by a large truck. 

It was my wife’s idea to buy it. She is the car person.She loves driving a car – except for the Mini. Since I don’t go to court that often anymore and take the el to the office, its use was limited to driving to the Lake Shore Club to work out and easing into small parking spaces in the city when dining out on a weekend – besides I can walk to Syd Jerome (my go-to clothing store in Chicago) from the Mayer Brown office to find a sporty outfit to go with the car’s dark blue color. But I loved that car – especially in the summer with the top down. It made me feel younger as both the car and I have aged. 

The end came unceremoniously. I heard a noise as I backed out of our small driveway. I ignored it. After a mile the front passenger tire went flat. I crawled ½ mile to the nearest service station and waited for a tow truck. I thought I just needed a new tire. That’s cheaper than buying a new second car. We were towed to the closest Midas shop. I learned the reason the tire shredded. The front shock absorber (by the way, it did not do a good job at absorbing shocks; it was a bumpy ride) had disintegrated which shredded the tire. 

The estimate - $2,500 for repairs. I finally gave up. The Midas employee offered me a reasonable sum in cash.I took a final picture of the car on the lift at the Midas shop. I’m now part of the Uber/Lyft generation because a second car to go to the gym and a restaurant seems excessive. 

But I miss my old friend. Will being part of the Lyft/Uber generation make me feel as young as driving the car in the summer with the top down? I doubt it.

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