ossobuco wrote:'91 Volvo station wagon, white, turbo, 125,000 miles, dognuzzled windows, column ajar on right side after seat belt yanked in passionate anger at wolves in rabid feral corgi's momentary lapse of behavior; purchased used before I moved from LA (lah...), still love it. I did have problems with its computer routines a couple of years ago; these led to various exciting breakdowns at major intersections in San Francisco and Los Angeles which I found unnecessarily character-building. With the car brain now fixed, I center my displeasure on the haphazard onagainoffagain closure of the sunroof.
Well, that is the one I have now. Before that,
*brand new 1968 Volkswagen convertible, painted with porche brown paint at my request, scraped against my parent's house corner a mere month later, repainted by Earl Sheib at, I think, $19.95.
*new Audi sedan. What was I thinking. Something went badly wrong when I was driving from LA to San Diego and it had to be towed to the dealer 60 miles away. Got rid of it as fast as possible, of course at a loss, which I was naive about.
*new Fiat spyder coupe. Loved it. But, what was I thinking? Various things went wrong routinely for a lot of money. At three years of age, when it would have begun to make sense to keep it, I bought
*a red Fiat spyder convertible for a pittance. Which of course turned out to have difficulties, though it was fun to drive Topanga Canyon when it ran and had enough transmission fluid.
*a new Chevy van, to carry paintings, which I had just started doing and started big, as in 4 x 5 foot ones. Gads, I hated that van. First of all, I couldn't see around it except for those mirrors, how weird was that? I sold it to the guy downstairs, I always forget his name, but he took over the payments. He was the guy who designed/built the Vector. Vroooommmm.
*Volkswagen bus, forget the year, but older. I got it painted, Earl Sheib again, a sparkly dark blue. (oooooh, ick!) This meant that when I was driving with my to-be husband in the VDub in a nice neighborhood in Brentwood, pointing out the sycamore trees there, we were stopped and searched re a neighborhood burglary. At the time I owned my parent's house in a nearby neighborhood, was remodelling it. I was affronted.
*a Triumph Spitfire, bought from a fellow I worked with, it was his daughter's. I never really owned it, I picked it up, took it home and drove it right back. Trouble, I was beginning to recognize trouble.
*Honda Civic, new. Wonderful car, but tended to spin out in rain. When I sold it I got the price I paid for it. Getting smarter, but not quite because then
*MGB GT, convertible, white. That was the car that when I was driving down Admiralty Way in Marina del Rey at 50 the hood sprang up and hit the windshield and bent over towards me. I slowed, pulled over, peeked past the hood from the passenger side and seeing no one and no cars, slowing edged around the corner to stop, when... yes, the policeman appeared. He helped me bend the hood back and tie it down and followed me home.
No ticket.
*Got a new Toyota Celica, '79, kept it for years and years, I liked its looks and how it felt and how it drove, wonderful car. Probably had it 13 years.
*A friend was selling a '84 volvo sedan. I bought it for $1600. That was in the early '90's. About a year after I had it I was hit in an intersection by someone running the red very late. Luckily I was only spun around in what would be a totalled car, and there were two witnesses on different sides of the intersection that stayed and told the police the guy had run the red very late. But, the car being so old, I had the merest insurance on it, so then
*I drove my husband's father's old Chevy Citation. (His father had died.)
Boy did that car depress me. Turning radius of a city block, among other failings.
*Divorce and move. Upon house sale, I bought an eight year old Volvo station wagon, which I still have. Basically love it, is a small tank, has great visibility.
Yep, I was right, thirteen.
a Lincoln Town Car pulls up to take us to Jay Eff Kay, airlino Delta por favor.