There’s One Born Every Minute—Conclusion
The purpose of this blog has been to show how serious addictions can be. I don’t think I ever heard of a 12 step program for car addicts. LOL
In my last post I said that I had to get rid of the MGA. In a very short time it would need major surgery and the government wasn’t providing insurance coverage on vehicles. LOL
What to buy, it couldn’t be just any car, I had to make a statement. These were the days of the foreign car; there were Skodas, Maicos, Anglias, Gogomobiles, it was a veritable potpourri of imports. But these were all too common—and then I saw it:
A 1960 Hillman Minx Convertible, the colors were Moonstone (an iridescent blue with a light lavender cast), blue vinyl top, and blue vinyl upholstery. So why did this car meet my standards:
It had a 4 on-the-column shifter.
Did you ever hear of this?
The convertible top could be lowered completely or
(ready for this)—
it could be retracted so that only the front seat was open the back was covered.
How cool is that?
I kept the Hillman for about four years until my wife and I decided we needed a more suitable family car, a 1964 Chevrolet BelAir. This behemoth had a manual transmission, no power steering, no air conditioning. It was very Spartan but it had a huge trunk that would hold a 4×8 sheet of plywood.
I won’t bore you with the remaining litany of vehicles but over the next 34 years 11 new cars passed through my hands. That’s an average of 3 years per car.
In 1996 I was driving a beautiful Toyota Cressida and when it was time to trade, I was informed that Toyota had decided to stop making the Cressida.
There wasn’t enough difference between the Lexus ES300 and the Cressida (other than price) so they hoped to move drivers up to the Lexus.
I wasn’t happy about this decision, I figured there was no way I could afford a Lexus but an eager salesman showed how I could.
I’m a sucker for a salesman!
I found myself behind the wheel of a beautiful ES300.
Strangely enough I kept this car for 12 years. Buy quality and you’ll be happy.
In 2008 I was ready for a new car. Every time I took my Lexus in for an oil change they gave me a loaner car, a new ES350 (such evil people).
My wife told me that since I was going to be 70 I could buy one for my birthday. I looked at all the options, sunroof, heated and cooled leather seats, (hey, I lived in the desert), GPS, Bluetooth, Headlights that swiveled, automatic wipers, power rear window sunshade.
Do you think that was enough, no I didn’t either. I added chrome wheels.
Do you have any idea what the price tag on this boat was? I’m not going to tell you.
Was I happy now? What do you think?
Yes, for a while. But two years later I realized that the car was too big, the payments were killing me, taxes were atrocious—and—it just wasn’t fun to drive.
You won’t believe my next move. I took my beautiful Lexus and drove to the Honda dealer and bought a bright red 2010 Honda Fit Sport. This is a really fun car to drive and is very flexible. And a lot less expensive in all respects.!
This is the end of my car chronicles, at least I hope it is; but who knows?
Tell me about your vehicle adventures.