I'm not much of a car guy. To me, they're a utility -- a necessary one, but nothing more. I don't get all googly-eyed when I see vintage cars, or excited when the newest models come out. As I often tell people, I don't know what an alternator is, what it does or even what it looks like. I'm decidedly not one of those guys who would go to a pharmacy parking lot on a Saturday evening and look under the hoods of cars who were brought there by their proud owners to discuss cam shafts and pistons and all things automotive.
I never owned a car until I was forty-three-years-old. I had tried to buy a car in my early thirties, but the price of insurance for a single male living in downtown Chicago was prohibitive. The CTA took care of most of my commuting needs, Metra the rest. Then I got married and my ex-wife had a car. When we got a dog and there were responsibilities that had to be shared, it was time to get a car. This was in 2004.
I looked around, wanting to buy domestic. I first visited Ford, where the salesman boasted that Ford was "up to number twelve in the safety ratings." Piqued by a boast of "we're number 12!" I asked him what Ford had been the year before. "Twenty-five," he said meekly, and combined with the smallish seating in the driver's seat, that put an end to my dalliance with Ford.
I wanted to buy a Saturn, but by the time I got around to it, Saturn's reputation had suffered. I won't buy foreign (more on that anon), so I was at a loss.
Then I ventured into the Volvo dealership in my town. Yeah, I know, Volvo's hardly an American brand, but I wiggled through on a loophole: Ford owned Volvo when I bought my first car, a Volvo XC 90. I got the demo model previously driven by the dealership's owner's wife. It's ash gold. Given Volvo's safety reputation (far removed from number 12...or 25...), and reliability, I was sold.
I got the car with 6,000 miles, more or less, on it. It now has 200,680, give or take. That's over 194,680 miles in nearly thirteen years, or nearly 15,000 miles a year. I didn't drive that many miles a year when I first bought it, but when I met Karen and we decided to move, the mileage started piling up. In 2013, when we moved out of Illinois, I must have made at least twenty-five round-trips of over 600 total miles in that year. In my new state, I've driven all over it, mostly in my car. We've driven down to Kentucky a few times.
The car's been some interesting places. It's been to Toronto, Niagara Falls, Gettysburg, Washington D.C., Mount Vernon, the Outer Banks, Gatlinburg, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Door County, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa and various parts of Illinois. I doubt it'll last long enough for me to take it out west to see Monument Valley; heck, it had enough to make it up the Smokies in Tennessee. But it won't see the Rockies, or the Northwest. It won't see the South. I'm not even sure we'll keep it.
I'm not attached sentimentally to the car. I appreciate it's ruggedness; it's saved Karen a time or two when cars plowed into her. In one notable instance, a Lexus drove into the back of the car while Karen was stopped at a railroad crossing. Karen was unhurt; the car had scratches on it, but the Lexus's engine was in the front seat. The cop speculated that it was going between 35-40 mph at the time it hit Karen.
We've moved furniture and firewood, boxes of books and bundles of clothes. It's the car I took Sherman in on his final drive. It's been scratched and dinged. Presently it has tree sap on it that I have to remove. It had a transmission overhaul (about the only complaint I have about Volvo is the fact that it didn't issue a recall when it installed the wrong transmission for the wrong engine) and an gas line rebuild. The tires have been replaced several times, as have the brakes -- little wonder with over 200,000 miles on it. It needs a cleaning -- desperately -- but all in all, it's been a solid, reliable car. My first.
Soon I'll have to invest in another car. Beside the monthly car payment there will be a new car with new smells (or less of them), a new feel, new positions for dials and lights and indicators. Perhaps it'll even be gun-metal grey. Whether we decide to keep this car is an open issue. It'd be useful to haul things in an preserve the value of our other cars. But I may need it as a trade-in.
Either way, I'll always remember my first car fondly. I'm proud it lasted over 200,000 miles. It still runs really well, and if I do trade it in someone will get some use out of it. It served me well and protected Karen on a couple of occasions. But time waits for no man, or car.
No matter what happens and what my new car is, however, I still won't know what an alternator is, what it does or what it looks like.
(c) 2017 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
No comments:
Post a Comment