Car Cents

I grew up knowing very little about cars. Guys learned about cars, girls learned about sewing.

My sisters and I learned just enough to get by. Case in point: not too many years ago, when I saw an SUV with "4WD" in letters on the back of it, I thought it meant "forward", which I thought was standard feature in all cars. My sister was just as bad: When her boyfriend asked her about the power of her engine, she knew she had a 4-cylinder, but asked him how she could get "more Vs so I can have a V6 or V8 engine."

My first car was a lemon. It was a Mercury Sable. I bought it for $2,000 cash and was very proud of myself for not getting in debt over a car. Yeah, no car payments! Boy was I wrong. That puppy went through a head gasket, radiator, TWO transmissions (I only had to pay for one thankfully) and a host of other maladies. I had it for only a year or two and dumped at least $3,000 into it to get it humming. The thing I disliked most about it was how it would randomly decide to not work. One time in the rain the wipers just froze. Another time, when Dan and I were newly dating, it wouldn't start in a grocery store parking lot. Dan came to rescue me and that stupid car started RIGHT UP for him. Grrr.

My next car was a rebound car. My only two qualifications were:
1. It was foreign made.
2. It worked.

Enter 1997 Toyota Corolla. This thing keeps on ticking. I love this little car. It's not very powerful, but it gets great gas mileage: something like 36 miles to the gallon. It's beige brown and NOBODY wants to steal it. And the best thing is that I only take it for tune ups and oil changes. This is my 8th year of owning it.

When I first met Dan's family, Dan's father gave me a little guff about owning a non-domestic vehicle. "How's your little foreign car, Em?" he would frequently ask. It was meant in a friendly, teasing sort of way. He explained to me that in small towns in Iowa I couldn't even get it fixed because they only have domestic vehicles there. I may have changed his mind. Plus, his niece just bought a Lexus; between the two of us, we're starting to pollute the pure-bred domestic culture of this midwest family. (Hey, they changed my mind about being vegetarian-- the winds of change blow both ways.)

By the way, I would like to say that I would LOVE to buy domestic but I just can't afford to. My family has had only heaps of trouble with domestic cars and with our foreign-made cars, we're able to run them into the ground, they last so long. My Toyota is about to hit 100,000 miles!

I am starting to think about our next car purchase. I don't know if it will be this year or not, but I really want...a sun roof. I insist on a foreign made vehicle, will probably have to have a mini-van and prefer a neutral colored car. But I really, really, really want a sun roof. I love to feel the sun on my head and by jove, this freezing winter has made me more resolute in my ambitions to warm my noggin with a little natural heat.

So there's my car history. I'll be sad whenever I have to let this little car go, but I'm pretty sure it will run for a long, long time.