Friday, February 16, 2007

Every car I've ever owned.

I use the word "owned" loosely here. I'm including any car that was mine to drive pretty much exclusively whether I actually bought it or not.

#1 - a white 1975 Toyota Starlet. It was the first car I ever crashed. The first time I drove it, I plowed it into our camping trailer and dented the bumper. It was a stick shift, if that's any excuse. I learned to drive with it in my early teens and drove it for about a year after I got my license. While I was an exchange student in Europe, my dad accidentally broke the back windshield and instead of repairing it, he sold the car for $100.#2 - a gold 1979 Volkswagen Scirocco. I remember dad giving the guy $600 cash for it. It had no shocks and whenever I hit a pothole, it would jump to the right about 3 feet. It was quite peppy, and I remember giving a friend a run for his money when I raced him in his peach El Camino.

#3 - a chocolate brown 1980's Chevy Suburban. This picture is the closest I could find, but the one I drove was much sweeter. I once lost control of it and drove it over my neighbor's flower garden. I'd like to say it was winter and the roads were slick, but I think it was July.#4 - a red 1980 Datsun F10. It didn't have a key so I couldn't lock it, and it was wired so that you could start it with any straight edge. I kept a screwdriver on hand and if I couldn't find that, I usually used my sunglasses. I remember trying to use my fingernail once or twice but that never worked.

#5 - a white 1989 Chevy Corsica. The speedometer only went to 80 - if you drove any faster, the needle pointed to Park. The odometer read 80,000 miles. It had been broken for 5 years before I bought the car.

#6 - a red 1990 Mazda 323. It actually looked more like this one, without the damage. Until the end, when I totalled it.

#7 - a teal 1996 Geo Metro. Funny story. And a not-so-funny story. I asked my dad to find a car within my budget for me while I was at school in Utah. One day my roommates were joking that he could possibly get something I absolutely hated and asked "What's the worst case scenario?" My answer: "A teal Geo Metro." I should've just been grateful he was doing all the leg work for me, but I couldn't help but notice the bittersweet irony when that's exactly what he found.

Now, the not-so-funny story. This is what the Geo looked like after it stopped rolling:

#8 - a green 1994 Mazda 626. When I sold it, it was primer gray due to all of its paint peeling off.

#9 - a 2003 gray Volkswagen Passat. This one has shocks.The last two, I inherited through marriage.

#10 - a gold 1990 Volvo 240 DL. We dated in this car. Col proposed to me out of its hood.

#11 - a silver 1998 Volvo S-70. Col, it looks like our front passenger side tire is a little low.
*Some years are my best guess since all I could get out of my dad was "Early 70's."

6 comments:

robyn said...

So prior to marriage did you have more cars than courtney moved?

Courtney said...

Hey. I resent that....and it seems so.

Who has the funny story about the car that she owned in college and it wouldn't start one morning so she called her dad to fix it after she got a ride to work. He fixed it all right....just as he called her and explained that the car needed to be in park before it was started. He then was nice enough to drop it off at my, I mean her, work so she could drive it home. Man, that was a good one.

I also think this was one of my favorite posts.

Carlos said...

Check my blog later for "every shirt I have ever worn" and see if there is more than blue or white button down types. Hey, how about shoes I have owned part deux?

the Painters said...

Yes the tire is a little low but Aubrey, what happened to the Passat and for goodness sakes, why on Earth was the Metro rolling?

Aubrey said...

The Passat is alive and well, though it's currently very low on gas. This isn't "Every Car I've Ever Wrecked", thank goodness. I only wrecked 3 1/2 of these, and one wasn't my fault at all. The Metro was rolling because sometimes when you're driving 80 mph on a freeway and fall asleep and hit the median, cars have a tendency to roll a few times. Luckily I was the only one in the car.

David said...

Remind me to never ride in a car that you are driving.