A Story About My Cars

So, a sad thing happened a few days ago.  My family sold the old car I used to drive.  Maybe this type of thing isn't too sad for other people but this car has been around since I was little... really little.  When I was a kid I'd always ask my parents if I could have the car when I grew up and they would always say something like "We'll probably sell it before you even learn how to drive". Well, let me tell you, they did not sell it for another 17 years!  I inherited this car, which was not really a car at all, it was a 1993 tan Toyota Land Cruiser, when I learned to drive and I lovingly named it Grandpa.  I had tried out different names on the car before but none of them seemed right.  Before I had this car I'd inherited my grandmothers old Subaru Outback. I'd named it "The Green Machine".  For some reason there was always a spider in it... anyway. There were a lot of stories about that car just shutting down in the middle of the road.  That car died a horrible death... (not really it just died).  I wasn't as sad when this one left. Grandpa was old and sturdy, kind of like a big, tan tank. It was a gas guzzler too! Ten miles per gallon nearly drained my bank! Grandpa was awesome though, he was a noisy, off-road, tough piece of metal and I loved him to bits!

This isn't an actual picture of my car.  I just tried to find one that looked very similar.

I remember one day at school, it was winter and there was snow and ice everywhere, I came out of my class to head home and there was a big dent in the trunk and bumper.  Luckily the responsible teenager who'd hit my car had left a note for me to contact him by.  I was happy that I'd be able to get Grandpa relatively fixed up but I was still upset about the damage.  There was a permanent scratch across the bumper that didn't look too bad.  I was just happy that Grandpa was still up and running and still looked good.

When my sister started driving she backed into a ladies car.  She had to pay around $2,000 to have it fixed for her.  Our car didn't even have a dent in it.  There were a few little paint scratches near the tailgate but that was about it! I thought that it was absolutely hilarious that the ladies car had been so seriously damaged and Grandpa just had a little scratch.
 
When I bought my new car, a 2004 Toyota Matrix, there was a lot to get used to.  First of all this car was not for off-road! It was low to the ground, which was about the hardest part to get used to, it was low to the ground, it wasn't as sturdy, and it didn't have as much power.  My step-dad wasn't wrong when he had said "gutless"! Don't get me wrong though, I really like my new car and I'm sure I'll learn to absolutely love it sooner than later.

Once Grandpa wouldn't start up and I had to ask my friends for rides to wherever we were going.  Most of my friends knew that the name of my car was Grandpa but one of them, and I did not know this at the time, did not.  After they'd picked me up I explained why I needed a ride saying Grandpa had died. And that one friend told me how sorry she was for my loss and when everyone gave her a questioning look I finally understood and explained to her that my actual grandfather had not died but my car, named Grandpa, was currently not working.  We all had a good laugh after that.

We took Grandpa to the mechanic for something small that needed replacing and when he came back he had some serious problems! He stalled at every stop and it was scary and dangerous to drive around.  My step-dad took a look at it and, while the mechanic had been working on the one part of the car, he'd broken another piece of the car and had put it back together with duct tape.  Now I don't know where this fella went to "mechanic school" or if he just believed duct tape fixed everything but he'd caused us some troubles. We fixed it all up and Grandpa was as good as new... well as new as 200,000 miles could be.

I'll miss Grandpa and his chewed up seat-belts, as a result of our wonderful dog Bull who left us some time ago, the satisfying roar as the engine started up, the slow rolling automatic windows, the way the extra seats in the back bounced around every time I turned a corner, not being able to open the doors more than once without the ear-piercing alarm going off. Ah, I'll miss those days! I hope the new owner will find as much joy as I did in this car and treat it well! Farewell Grandpa! You will be missed!

I happily introduce my shiny new car Luna! She will be an awesome car, I know it!