It’s been good to us, and we like it a lot.
But the transmission is going, and one day it’ll just go. But it hasn’t yet, and it’s stuck around far longer than we thought it would. Enough to bring us new confidence. And hey, it’s been around so long that even though it was hardly a hot rod in it’s heyday, people are starting to think it’s cool now. Retro. Not necessarily young people, but people who have been around long enough to respect that it’s still on the road.
It’s got a lot of miles on it, and it looks it, but those are good, hard earned miles. It got us through a massive blizzard once, when we were way out in front of the plows and nearly everyone else was stranded. We have a lot of good memories involving this car.
Still, already, we often have to pop the hood and fiddle with things in order to get it started. But then it always starts. Each time though, fingers crossed.
It’s got almost no bells or whistles: only cruise control and air conditioning, both of which work only part of the time. It always has one tire or another that’s low. The roof leaks. But it has plush, slightly fuzzy seats of a kind we don’t think you find in cars anymore that feel good to sit down on. It also has seat belts that automatically lock in place.
We were about ready to trade it in, but then our other, newer, much more expensive car unexpectedly broke down.
And we hate the bus. And we never take Uber. We do commute by bicycle whenever possible, and we like the train OK.
Our car runs hard and bumpy. Always has. But that’s OK, we like to feel the road.
Still, mostly recently we just use it around town. Just in case. We’re not sure whether it really is worth risking going for a long distance. Although we have a feeling it’d make it almost for sure. We had a few pretty good slightly longer jaunts in it recently. Where it almost seemed to be willfully proving to us it still rides really good. Just might not be fair to the vehicle to put it though more.
But we’re projecting, because so far, at the end of the day, and even on brutally cold, icy mornings, it still eventually starts fine, and gets us where we want to go, or at least where we need to be going. And we’d like to say the little question mark about whether we’ll make it each time we set out in it, is kind of fun. It’s not. But we’ve learned to live with it. And in turn, so far, it’s done right by us in return.
Ironically, it’s insured by Progressive.
At the end of the day, if it’s the only car we’ve got, we could do a lot worse.
Keeps reminding us of that Taylor Swift song “Only the young can run”. Not the part about how only the young can run. The part about:
“And run, and run, and run.”
So run, and run, and run…That’s our only wish now, every single damn day.