My Life in Cars

My recent post about our new ride got me to thinking about how my life can be traced by the cars I've owned. I've noticed that the vehicles just keep getting bigger.


This was the car in which Bo Hunkmeister took me on our second date. It was a fall foliage ride through Connecticut. Notice my sexy outfit. I would have worn my hajib but it was at the cleaners.


This was my first love car. I bought it for $600 from a fellow art student and it was worth every penny I paid. I had a mechanically inclined friend give the car a once over.

He said, "You need brake fluid."
I said, "All right, I'll get some tomorrow."
He said, "No, like now."
I said, "Like this afternoon?"
He said, "No, like, your brakes will be failing in the next ten minutes."
I said, " Ok, so like I should go get brake fluid now, huh?"
Am I a smart cookie, or what?

When I sold the car ~hangs head in shame~, the driver's side door was not working, it periodically stalled and it had about 140,000 miles on it. The girl I sold it to told me that three months later, both doors were not working and the brakes had failed when someone stole the car.



When I married the stylish Bo Hunkmeister, I also married his stylish car, the Honda Accord. In an effort to teach my husband not to be so precious with his possessions, I wrecked the car for him. He didn't seem to be as appreciative as I though he would be.



In a fit of consumerism, we bought a Volvo. To me this car screams Yuppy DINKs! (Dual Income, No Kids). This was a lesson in how not to buy a car: no research, impulse purchase, no financial planning, etc. We pushed the dealership to get the car ready so we could show it off to my parents on a weekend trip to Vermont. The dealer did so and off we went, proud of ourselves and our purchase. As we were driving with my parents, the car inexplicably stalled out. There we were, dead by the side of the road in our new car that we were just bragging about. My mother, bless her heart, said, "Well, it has a nice interior!" Pride goeth before the car troubles. One summer day I was driving the car and it stalled out— leaving me by the side of the road in 98 degree weather with a trunk full of groceries and a one month old baby in the back seat. This was when we got a cell phone and a new car.



This car began our relationship with Anchor Subaru. We haven't met their parents yet, but I'm sure a ring is in our future. This purchase we were smarter about. We researched, test drove and researched some more. This lovely piece of engineering served us well until we just plain out-grew it. The only down side was I woke up one morning, looked out my kitchen window, and noticed that the car was tilting to one side. I went out to discover that, during the night, someone had jacked up the car and stolen all four alloy wheels. You'd think it would have been easier to just steal the whole car. Maybe they didn't want to be mistaken for a soccer mom. There was a bright side though— we got two free jacks out of the deal.



As much as we liked our Subaru, with baby number 4 on the way, we went back to our friends at Anchor and bought our Honda Odyssey minivan. It should be a crime to sell such a lovely, clean car to people like us who are going to fill it with old french fries, crumpled juice boxes and other miscellaneous food bits. Being the art students that we are, we put our own touch on it. Bo removed the flames before we traded it in but I thought flames would add to its resale value. Again, loved the car but, just like Otto the goldfish, we needed something bigger.



So now we ride in a battleship size vehicle. And while it's a large vehicle to maneuver, we do periodically get the chance to down-size to this:

But where's the beverage holder?