Turns out the happy ending to this story was actually just the happy middle, with more kindness to come.
2.7 million yen (US$24,700) is usually a very good price to get when selling a 32-year-old car, but it came under some sad circumstances for a man in Osaka earlier this year. The man, who goes by Leiz on Yahoo! Japan’s auction site, was looking to sell his 1989 Toyota Supra, which he’d been driving since the early ‘90s. This wasn’t because he’d lost any love for the classic Japanese sports car, but because he needed money to pay for his pet cat’s medical treatment, as he explained in the listing.
Leiz set 2.7 million yen as the buy-it-now price for the car, not really expecting the auction to get that high, since that’s quite a bit more than that model of car, in his vehicle’s condition, would usually fetch. To his surprise, though, after his story spread around the Internet a buyer agreed to the figure. It turned out the buyer, who goes by Masakoba, is an Osaka car and animal lover too, and sympathized with how painful it must be for Leiz to part with the Supra, and so he made him a deal: He would build a garage on his property specifically to house the Supra, hang onto it, and eventually sell it back to Leiz at some unspecified point in the future for the exact same price, essentially turning the sale into a loan of 2.7 million yen to a complete stranger.
▼ A Supra of the same generation as Leiz’s
That sounds like a happy ending, but it really wasn’t…because things have only gotten happier since. As of August, Leiz’s cat, Silk has completed its final treatment for feline infectious peritonitis and is back in good health. Next on Leiz’s to-do list was to start the long process of saving up to buy back his Supra, and he may have been thinking of just how to manage the process earlier this month when the car itself suddenly pulled up in front of his house, and in far better condition than it had been in when he sold it. Masakoba has spent the last several months carrying out an extensive restoration of the vehicle. The body panels needed work, which meant first removing the aftermarket aero accouterments and then reattaching them. Working on a car’s body means the paint needs to be touched up afterwards, and rather than go with a cheap generic brand, Masakoba had the whole car resprayed in its factory-spec paint from Toyota’s factory. With the passage of time, various rubber components in the engine bay can start to harden and crack, negatively affecting performance, so those were pulled out and replaced too.
Having kept in touch with Leiz since the sale, and hearing that Silk was now completely recovered, he had his mechanics cruise over to Leiz’s house in the Supra to show him the transformation…then they left the car there, because Masakoba is giving it back to Leiz, free of charge, to celebrate the cat’s clean bill of health.
▼ Keep that thumb up, because there are still more layers to his awesomeness.
Masakoba had actually been hoping to return Leiz’s car to him even before Silk’s treatments were finished, but the Supra’s restoration wasn’t done until this month. During the process Masakoba, a devout Christian by faith, also made a special visit to Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Shrine to purchase an omamori good luck amulet on Silk’s behalf. Oh, and as for why he sent his mechanics to drop off the car? He didn’t want to spoil the moment by making it about Leiz having to thank him, but instead to give him the pure joy of the unexpected reunion.
Compassionate, generous, open-minded, and humble? Good Samaritans don’t come much better than that, and here’s hoping Leiz’s days are filled with the rumble of his car’s exhaust and the purr of his healthy cat for a long, long time.
Source: With News via Livedoor News via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Wikipedia/TTTNIS, Pakutaso
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