I didn't get my license until I was 17 and a Junior in high school. When I was practicing to get a drivers license, my dad bought me a little car. It was a Subaru and a stick shift. He didn't even attempt to teach me how to drive it. He turned around and bought a little Renault. I loved that little car. I drove it into the ground.
After that, I haven't had much luck with cars at all. Some problems were my fault, and some were not. After the Renault died, I had already learned to drive a stick. I took the Subaru and drove it until the muffler didn't work any more. I would drive it through campus and set off car alarms on all of the other students' nicer cars. After the Subaru, and when I was a Sophomore, I ended up buying a Ford Escort Station Wagon. I loved that car. But alas, it wasn't meant to last very long. I drove it for over a year and a half. During that time, it had the "Imaginary Problems." It would die, and then, an hour later, start right back up. A mechanic finally figured out, it had some kind of equalizer valve problem. After that, it ran well.
Then, it kind of gets wierd. My parents decided that I should by a better car to get me back in forth to the hospital, which was in Indianapolis, and I was in Terre Haute. My dad had me come look at a Pontiace Sunfire, which soon became know as the "StartFire." I didn't really think I should buy that car. I just had a bad gut feeling about it. It was a reposessed car at a local bank. I don't even know how my dad found it. When we were test driving it, it ran out of gas, a couple blocks away from my parents' home. I kept telling my dad, "I don't think I should buy that car. I don't feel good about it!" Well, my dad talked me into buying it. Within a couple weeks, it was developing "Imaginary Problems." I would drive it around the city, and it would just die. Then, I'd get it towed somewhere, and the mechanics would get it to start right up! That is one of the most frusturating things that can ever happen to a person! Like, "Yes Ma'am, your car problems are all in your mind!" Finally, we decided to take it to a transmission shop, and had the transmission rebuilt. My dad had to take a loan out for that. (He felt bad for talking me into buying the car, so, he covered the loan.) Having a transmission rebuilt is one of the most expensive things you can have done on a car. After we got the transmission fixed on that car, after a couple weeks, it still started dying for no reason. I finally gave the car to my brother to keep for a while. He's a mechanic. I borrowed a little Geo Metro from my parents. While I had that car, it got broken into. It was in my back yard, and it must have been a group of teens. They broke the steering collum to try to hot wire it. Yes, a crappy Geo Metro. Some Terre Haute teens need to get lives, or learn to steal better cars! It took a couple weeks to get that car fixed. Then, my brother finally figured out what was causing all of the "Imaginary Problems" on the Startfire! The spark plug wires were faulty! Why had none of the previous mechanics thought to check that! He fixed the car. I had two cars for a short period of time in Terre Haute. I loaned the Geo Metro to a friend. The insurance had replace the CD player in that car for a nicer one. The car got broken into AGAIN in front of his house. So, I had to make another police report and get the CD player replaced. That was just a couple months after I had had that car fixed and CD player put in.
I kept driving the Startfire. One day I was driving home from Bloomington on 46, and the whole computer system on the car failed! I was stuck in front of these random houses by myself. This was before cell phones were a necessity of life. Luckily, one of the people was nice, and let me use there phone to make some phone calls. I had to have a friend come pick my up and have the car towed away! It was such a frusturating experience! That was an expensive fix!
After I got it fixed, I was ok with that car for a while, when the muffler went bad on it. That was the last straw for that car. I started looking at cars at dealerships. That's it! I had to have a car with a warranty!
I started looking at cars and when to the Chevy dealership. The car salesman recommended this Hyundai Elantra. It was such a cute little car! I took it for a test drive. I loved it! The salesman said to me, "This is the car I put all of my women in!" I think he meant, his wife, daughter, sisters, ect. It was just funny the way he worded it! I bought that little used car and had my first car payment. It was such a fun car! Power everything with a Sun/Moon roof, plus, it still had a warranty. Hyundai warranties are some of the best out there if you didn't know. After a couple months, the battery started dying on me... Well, I kept leaving my lights on because it didn't have a little bell on it that said they were on. So, that messed up the computer. The car dealership was so nice to me, and the problem was covered by warranty, including my rental car! A year or two later, a window motor went out. That was fixed! A year after that, the other one went out. They fixed that too! That warranty was awesome!
In August of 2004, I man backed into they drivers side door of the Elantra, and then, said it was my fault. He was screaming that at the cop, when the cop laughed in his face, and said, in no way could this have been my fault. His insurance still didn't pay up for the accident.
On Thanksgiving of 2004, I was on the way to Lafayette from the Chicago Suburb, on I-65, when I rearended a car. It had snowed the night before, and there was black ice on the road. Plus, there were eight accidents within a two mile stretch of I-65. I was so sad to leave my little car and the Wilcott Dairy Queen/Gas Station. That was the last time I saw that little car. My sister even had to go clean it out for me in Lafayette, because I was living in the Suburb.
The car was "Totalled" and all the money that I got from the insurance, went to pay off what was left of the loan.
I borrowed my parents' Subaru station wagon to get back to the Suburb. Boy, were those Toll booths scary! Everytime I went through one, the car died! (This was right before everyone had the I-Pass.) In December, I started searching out a car. I went to one place, and nobody came out and talked to me. I went to the lot next door, and I had bought a Neon before the end of the day. It was a blah car. It didn't suit me at all. It was a dark gray, it was big and clunky. Even though the car was barely a year old, it still had a tape deck! Why a 2004 would still have a tape deck? I don't know.
I kept the Dodge Neon until April. That's when I started seeing the little neon green Chevy Aveo on the Chevrolet lot. I drove by it three or four times that week, and then, I went into the dealership to look at it. I traded my Neon in for this little Aveo. Probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, but I loved that car!
Two weeks after I bought the car, I was driving home on I-65 one morning, and hit a dear! I got that fixed. Then, a couple months after that, I hit some wooden pallets a truck had dropped on the road on Highway 41 going back to Indiana. It seemed something has happened to that car every year since I bought it; hail damage, tire/rim damage, attacked by a truck tire blowing in front of me, a rock flying off a truck and cracking my windshield, all sorts of things.
Well, about a month ago, I bought two new tires for the car. Two weeks after that, my boyfriend was driving it and hit a huge pot hole. We ended up on I-70 with a flat tire and a destroyed rim. My brother came and fixed that for me. Then, this last Saturday, I turned a corner, and the engine started making a crazy noise! My cute little Keylime Green Aveo now sits at the dealerships service center. This is the month I'll be just about paid off on my car!
Cars have always been a frusturating thing to me. I want one I can enjoy driving, and I'm not going to lie, color of the exterior is important to me! I'm just sad my poor little car broke down right before I am going to pay it off! I just hope it doesn't cost me an insane amount of money to get the thing fixed. I just want my little Aveo back. I. has been out of town, so, I've been driving his car. I don't really fit in his car. I know that sounds wierd, but I do fit in my car. I don't want to have to buy a new car for a couple more years. I was just planning on paying mine off and driving it until it doesn't work anymore.
