Zel-kun’s Words

Well, I finally did it.  I bought myself a brand new slightly used automobile.  Since I got it, I’ve been practically looking for excuses to drive.  It’s going to end up saving me a lot of money, giving up the SUV for a sedan, and I’m all about saving money.  Before I introduce the new car, I figured I’d give a rundown of the vehicles I’ve had through the ages.  A memoriam of sorts…

And yes, I know Pete did it first.

In 1999 I bought Aira, a 1987 Pontiac 6000 sedan.  Rather, my dad bought it using a joint savings account we had at the credit union.  He told me I should probably get a job and get insurance, or else he’ll sell it for $300, half the price he bought it for.  If nothing else, the man knew how to motivate me.  The picture is not of my car, but as close as I could find.  Basically, make that a two-door, and put about 10 pounds of rust on it, and you’ll have a rough idea of what Aira looked like.

I named her Aira after the first anime I saw as a teenager, which seemed appropriate being as it was the first car I owned.  The car, like the anime, was not the newest, or prettiest, but it got the job done.  She was rusted-out, had no CD or even a cassette, and the interior was torn and frayed.  Aira remains one of the most reliable cars I’ve owned.  She only failed me once, albeit quite spectacularly.

On Christmas Eve of 1999, I was working at Things Remembered as an engraver.  The store closed at 6:00pm, but there was a large pile of work left to do.  I dismissed the salespeople and worked on it for a couple hours, so I wouldn’t be backed up when I came in the day after Christmas.

I drove home from the mall, which back before the town was as developed as it is now, led me down a stretch of forest road.  About halfway down, the radio stopped, the lights went off, and the car stopped running.  I was suddenly coasting along in complete darkness.  I put the brakes on and pulled to the side of the road, then began walking back to the gas station I passed about a quarter-mile back.

I made a call at the pay phone (an age before cell phones… I can barely believe it), and had my step-dad who was at my mom’s Christmas party I was heading to pick me up.  We attached a chain to my car and towed it to the mall parking lot.  After Christmas, my dad found that the problem was a sensor.  Go figure.

Aira was badly damaged in a collision just after 9/11.  I was driving home from college to see the presidential address, and at an intersection, a lady in the oncoming lane in a giant SUV took a left turn in front of me.  I managed to drive away from the accident, but with most of the driver’s side front end destroyed.  There was no headlight and no way to open the hood anymore.  I continued driving her for a month until the insurance settlement cleared.  She was a good car, but it was finally time to retire her…

I bought Sylphiel, a 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass with the insurance money for only $750.  I bought it off a co-worker who inherited her husband’s estate.  She had been seperated from him for decades, so she was trying to get rid of stuff, so I got a nice deal.  It had been sitting in the driveway for years, and only had some 50,000 miles on it.  It only had a couple scratches, and the interior was pristine.  She was a pretty reliable car, but had problems with the steering and the shocks.  I fixed the steering pretty early on, but didn’t get it fixed until about a year or more later.  My stepbrother loved the broken shocks because when I got in, looked like a cartoon car because it dipped heavily to my side.

After I had the shocks fixed it ran like a dream.  Unfortunately, that dream was cut short less than a month later when a giant SUV (I sense a pattern) ran a red light and t-boned me.  I was struck just in front of the driver’s door and avoided what could very well have been a lethal collision.  Instead I walked away with whiplash and a sprained shoulder.  Sylphiel was not so lucky, the collision broke the front axle, crushed the oil pan, punctured the radiator, and broke the transmission.  When I was hit, the car spun so fast that there was a sizeable dent on the back of my car where it struck the back of the SUV.  I didn’t have a choice but to replace Sylphiel, murdered before her time.

Just like last time, I used the insurance money to buy another car.

A 1997 Chevy Blazer, affectionately called Lina.  She cost $3600 and was the newest car I’ve ever owned.  It has also been the most trouble of any vehicle I’ve owned.  One of the spark plugs keep shorting out, the computer crashed preventing the transmission working once, the fuel pump died, power brake booster broke TWICE, the master cylinder died, the gas tank has a minor leak on top that spills a little gas during fillup, the O2 sensor died, two new batteries, the lever on the seat broke, the power windows randomly decide when they want to work, the four-wheel drive doesn’t work (as I found out the hard way when I couldn’t get out of a friend’s driveway in the winter and needed to be TOWED out), windshield wiper motor failed, the heating fan broke, the wiper fluid reservoir is broken, and the air conditioning has a leak.

Chevy… you’re not really good at making cars, are you?

On top of that are a couple little dents I got while trying to maneuver the thing.  And more recently, the other day I was sitting in traffic and some douche driving in the breakdown lane knocked my mirror off (as seen in above photo).  So, when my parents offered me good deal on a new used car, I had to take it…

Enter Odessa, a 2000 Chrysler 300m.  I bought it for only $4500, and it’s one defect is a leak in the air conditioning, which I intend to get fixed next payday.  It drives well, has incredible gas mileage compared to my bulky Blazer, and has the most comfortable seats in the world.  It’s the first non-GM car I’ve owned, so I’m not sure what to expect from it in the coming years.  Though anything more reliable than the Blazer would be welcome.

That’s all for now, happy Independence Day!

Zel-kun out.