Cars and Things

In answer to a couple of comments I got on the new car:

No, I will not need a stepstool to climb up into it! LOL. Anyway, I cannot stand to get in and out of a regular sedan; it feels like I'm crawling down into and then climbing up out of it. I like an SUV because you sit up straight and have a good view, and the Tracker is the smallest SUV there is, I think. So it's perfect for me.

How perfect? What would be my ideal car if I could get any car? Well, well, that's another story.

I would want to get some kind of hybrid, but, as per the previous paragraph, the only hybrids of the moment are sedans or big SUVs, and either way, they all cost way more than I would want to spend on a car.

I love to car shop as I drive along the road. I've been doing this forever, maybe everyone does. I remember thinking over 25 years ago while we were driving up to New Hampshire for vacation that what I needed was a van, but not a big one; why couldn't they make little vans? I remember also just loving the Jeep Wagoneer, the big boxy car that was kind of like an overgrown station wagon, in the way-early, pre-SUV days.

The other kind of car that I just adore is a small convertible sports car. This could not be more out of character for me, and I really only like the way they look. I would absolutely hate riding in any kind of convertible, or on a motorcycle. I can't stand the wind, or the noise, or even the smell of the other cars. Driving around these last couple of days in a car with its window stuck open is like torture. I never drive with the windows open.

I must have inherited this little quirk from my father. Jack's all-time favorite car was the 1957 Thunderbird.
This too must have been a looks-only kind of love, because he had very strict rules about what kind of car he would buy (aka, what kind of car we should buy.)

It had to be a sedan.
It could never ever be a convertible.
It couldn't be what they used to call a "hardtop." In other words, there had to be a post between the front and back windows to help hold up the roof.
It couldn't be a hatchback.
It couldn't be station wagon.

All of these rules, like almost everything else he did, were for safety. He assured us that if we were ever in an accident in a convertible or a hardtop, the car would turn over and we would be crushed by the unsupported roof, or certainly ejected from a car with no roof at all, or just squashed dead. It had to be a sedan because that was the kind of car that adults drive. It couldn't be a hatchback or a station wagon because they were too open, and anything you put in them could be seen, and was therefore an open invitation to thieves.

Yeah. But there was another thing. Every car he ever drove in my lifetime was a company car. He and his business partner, Murray, had started out just around the time I was born. It was just the two of them. At first, they bought a used Suburban -- not the monster SUV it is today -- so they could make deliveries, and if one of them needed it for something else, they took turns borrowing it. Within a couple of years, they each had their own personal cars, but owned by the business. Also by this time, Murray had contracted polio -- when I was about 6 months old, actually -- so Jack had to have a car with a big trunk, because he would be making all the deliveries. When he went car shopping, he brought a carton with him from his warehouse, the biggest size they used. If it fit in the trunk, he bought the car.

But by the early 80s, all the cars were downsized. The only car he could find that was big enough for him was the top of the line, super-sized Chevy station wagon.



And to his surprise, he loved it. Turns out it was the best car he ever had. It was huge, and it handled like a dream. He picked it up, I think, March 18, 1981, which was the day after R was born. A week later, he drove us home from the hospital in it. But ten years later, UPS was making all his deliveries, and he wanted to downsize, too. That's when he got the white Oldsmobile Ciera, the one that the Hubs drives now.

So, what's my dream car? Big enough so that I don't feel claustrophobic, high enough so that I can see over the other cars, not so big that I look like I'm trying to compensate for something. Not a sedan, I hate those. I like a hatchback, myself. I like a car with really good visibility. I'd also like a car that gets at least 50 miles to the gallon. Waiting for a hybrid that suits me.

My sister, btw, bought a Prius in March, but she almost never drives anymore, since her husband takes her everywhere. She's never put gas in it except to fill the tank on her way home from the dealership, and it still has less than 300 miles on it. Now that's a car.

WATCHING FRASIER :: ENTRY #1571