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One of Big Girl's last days as my car.
(Photo taken last week.)
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I got my first car when I was around 19. I didn't get my driver's licence until shortly after my 18th birthday. In order to get it sooner, I would have had to take driver's ed classes during the summer. Summers were precious, not to be spent driving around with other students and an instructor. My Dad taught me to drive over a long period of time. So I knew what I was doing, more or less. State law mandated that to get a license before 18, one had to have had driver's ed. Nope. Didn't care, I could wait.
My first car was a used 1970 Volkswagen Beetle, a sweet little vehicle, great gas mileage, simple to maintain, and was good in snow. An important consideration when driving in Vermont.
Second car was a brand new 1974 Volkswagen Super Beetle. I drove that about a year before I went into the Air Force, had the chance to drive it while I was on leave a couple of times. No more, then it was off to Asia where low ranking chaps like me weren't allowed to ship a car.
Briefly had an old Datsun Bluebird on Okinawa. When Okinawa switched to driving on the left side of the road, I drove it one more time, that was it. Fun while it lasted but I had no desire to drive in that environment.
Two Volkswagen Jettas followed, the first was a great car, the second, well, let's just say that the Lord took pity on me and dropped a tree on her while I was at work in Germany. Insurance company said "Totaled, get a new car." Then the lady who totaled it sold it to her son who got it back on the road. Did I suspect something fishy? You betcha.
No more Volkswagens for me. Relenting to calls of patriotism and "Buy American!" I purchased (overseas) a 1997 Dodge Stratus. Sweet looking car, all black, fun to drive, that is fun to drive when it wasn't breaking down:
- First six months, blown air conditioner compressor, which the dealership in the Netherlands took too long to fix.
- Second year of ownership, blown head gasket, fortunately still under warranty.
- Brake fire one, which after they fixed it led to brake fire two, on the other side of the car -- "Well sir, the hose going to the brake was clogged." "And you didn't think to change both?" Of course, not. The Dodge dealership in Middletown, Rhode Island, was about as reputable as a band of thieves. Fortunately enough people complained (I was one) and Dodge-Chrysler shut them down.
Anyhoo, fast forward to 2010, I'm driving the Stratus back and forth to work, 200 miles, 100 on Monday, return trip on Thursday. One day all of the electrical systems in the car, outside of the ignition system, just decided to stop working.
In steps my middle child and oldest daughter, The Nuke. She had a five year old Honda Element which I fell in love with when she was deployed. The WSO and I had driven down to Norfolk to collect the vehicle of The Nuke so that I might keep it in good running order while she was off in the Gulf keeping world safe for democracy. (BTW, let an Element sit too long and the brakes will rust away to nothing. DAMHIK)
Anyhoo, when she returned from deployment and finished Nuke School (Charleston and Ballston Spa) she decided she wanted a new car and that I needed a more reliable ride. So would I like her "old" Element as my very own vehicle? Why yes, yes I would. (The first story concerning Big Girl is here.)
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| Big Girl's last day as my car. |
Also, as odds are pretty good that The Missus Herself will opt out of flying to Maryland for the upcoming birth of our newest grandchild in August, odds are even better that I'll be driving her there. While I am confident that with a few more thousand dollars thrown her way Big Girl could continue on for some years to come, I didn't really want to take the chance of her breaking down somewhere between Little Rhody and Annapolis.
So new car it is.
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| Big Girl and her replacement. |
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| The new kid, on station and ready to go. |
Still, I'm gonna miss Big Girl.
A happy day and a sad day, all at the same time.
I get far too attached to people, places, and things.
Zurück zum Krieg am Dienstag.¹
¹ Back to the war on Tuesday.
Enjoy the new SUV - I hear Pilots are generally nice. But be careful backing out of your driveway that you don't hit the white car hanging it's tail over your driveway, of the truck across the street. You have a thing for Honda blue, eh? :-)
ReplyDeleteThe neighbors across the street were having a party (sigh, social distancing, nobody masked, don't ask, we're a "blue" state) and they tend to park up and down the street making it nearly impassable. Annoying but rare.
DeleteThe back up camera is something I'm still getting used to, I'm used to the old Mark 1 Mod 0 eyeball, need to learn to use the available sensors as well!
A lady in a grocery store parking lot backed into me, I was stopped. She had a back up camera and didn't look behind her, seems I didn't show up in her camera. I'm not sure how that happened but the guy at the body shop said that was a regular occurrence these days.
DeleteGood luck!
People look at the yellow guide lines on the display, not what's actually behind them.
DeletePeople can be idiots.
You were in her camera, she just didn't see you. She had the ability to see, the eyes probably picked up the picture, but somewhere between the eyes and the brain the 'Don't care, I'm important' message wiped out the visual message.
DeleteIt happens. You get into a fugue state where you're doing the same thing over and over and over again and you just 'don't see' because you're doing the same thing over and over again.
In a lot of ways, all the 'driving enhancements' are really not enhancements. It allows people to cheat and not pay as much attention to actual driving as they should.
(My van doesn't have a back-up camera. It also doesn't have windows in the sides except up front. It does have these little funky parabolic mirrors on the bottom of the side mirrors that give you a good view of things around the sides and towards the rear, if you scrunch down to hobbit size while belted in. So, once in a while, after checking and checking and checking and checking, I will be surprised by someone as I am backing out. It happens.)
People are still idiots at times.
DeletePeople ARE idiots. Period.
DeleteWon't argue that. I tend towards optimism, am often proved wrong.
DeleteI had a 1998 Yukon company truck. We went everywhere together. It fit like a glove, and never really let me down. And some dood ran a red light from behind a truck and nailed the drivers door. Bent the frame, and she was dead. I felt like my best friend died in my arms... I still miss that truck.
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you. I am far too sentimental. I'd have done the brakes just to learn how. I can do all sorts of vehicles now.... And don't even ask how sentimental I am about tools.....
I am not a fan of all the new sensors and crap. There is a literal hurricane of information in most new cars. And a storm in the cockpit is never a good thing. There is even some lady that tells me 911 isn't enable between my cell and radio... EVERY DANG TIME I START THE TRUCK! AND NO WAY TO OPT OUT THE NANNY WARNING. And to whoever thought that was a feature, "I'd like to spit some Beechnut in that dudes eye."
Some designers of computer systems have no clue what life is really like.
DeleteThe push to information overload which then became the push for driverless vehicles is a stupid one. I'm waiting for the vehicle to come out where you have no dash panel, you just plug in your cell phone and hit the dash-app so you can monitor where your completely controlled vehicle is taking you. And Skynet smiles...
DeleteAnd information overload it really is. Too much stuff. Give me speed, fuel, charge, tach, temp that I can monitor, and a symbol for when my headlights are on, and one warning symbol for funky stuff happening under the hood. That's all one needs. On the dash. The radio should be that. A radio, maybe something you can interface with your media player to play tunes. I don't begrudge a GPS to most of the lackwits out there, but not a necessity nor a want. I can read a map, while pulled over on the side of the road.
As to whomever decided to hook up a cell phone to the stereo system so the people in the car can talk to someone else and I have to listen to the conversation from a block away, well, I have a cinderblock, some rope and a sledgehammer that would like to meet them. Don't even get me started on driving with a cell phone. Especially since most states have laws against it that the law-enforcement people don't follow (and don't get me started on distracted driving by cops because working the in-car computer while driving....)
Times like these, I miss my old manual transmission Datsun B-210 without ac but with wing windows.
There are a lot of instruments in the cockpit of an aircraft, if you're trying to pay attention to all of them, you're doing it wrong. Same with a motor vehicle.
DeleteLast year I did a semi-forced change to a Mazda3 hatchback, and the more electronic gizmo-things I turn off, the better I like it.
Delete(Lane departure warnings? Off. Rain-sensing wipers that never quite wipe the water the way I want? Off. Automatic-dimming high beams? Off.)
It's good that one can still "season to taste."
Delete"There are a lot of instruments in the cockpit of an aircraft, if you're trying to pay attention to all of them, you're doing it wrong."
DeleteYep, Altitude, Airspeed, Attitude (going up or down) and Fuel are what one should focus on first. Those are the things that are going to keep you from hitting very hard thigs at fast speeds. That's going to keep you pretty safe.
a bear..Gonna respectfully disagree. Those GD halogen high beams that blind you at noon. No...No...Those absolutely need to autodim. Especially at night. Highlights are so you can be seen. The secondary reason is so you can see.
Haven't tried the auto-dimmer yet, of course, I haven't driven at night so far.
DeleteMy headlights are LED, hate those halogen things.
Three happiest days of vehicle ownership.
ReplyDelete1. Day bought
2. Day paid off.
3. Day sold.
#2 May never happen for some folks.
Three times on me and #2.
DeleteNever had a #2. Just sometimes a string of shady vehicles. And loaners from Mom. Like the Grey Mouse, a small manual shift compact car that wife, dog and I managed to go camping with until we transitioned into the Serial Killer Van (a white Ford E150 work van, with 2 front seats and a bench seat from a For Aerostar bolted in, and, yes, driving at night through shady parts of town to get to and from job got me pulled over because big white serial killer type van was suspicious...)
DeleteHeh.
DeleteNever NOT had a #2 for my prior vehicles. On my 10th and 11th vehicles now. Both are in their last year of payments. I expect/hope/pray they'll be around for quite a few more years.
Delete#3 broke my heart last time, because it died a stupid death (GM's "fuel-saving" technology killed the motor. I didn't buy a car with a V8 to "save fuel") and I'd had it for over a decade so it was kinda my companion....
Deletejuvat - Pretty good track record there.
Deletea bear - Fuel saving for a V-8, I'm sure the designer thought he was saving the world...
DeleteSo....Now for the important question. How should we address her? Enquiring readers want to know.
ReplyDeleteAnd....I know have a subject for tomorrow's post. So, Thanks!
I'm waiting for her name to be revealed. At first I thought, "The Beast," but she's too pretty for that. Then I toyed with the idea of "Beauty," as she is pretty, there's the whole "Beauty and the Beast" thing, but J.E.B. Stuart's nickname was "Beauty," 'cause he was so damned ugly (from what I've read). "Old Blue" was under consideration, but she ain't old. Just "Blue" might make the cut, we'll see.
DeleteVehicles are like cats. They name themselves. Sometimes they'll have several names, depending on how they're treating you at the time.
DeleteIt is written!
DeleteWhat is it with me providing topics or titles for you? Hmmm??? My remittance this month better be larger than last month, that's all I'm saying...
ReplyDeleteOther than that, funny, when you said you were looking I slid over to the Honda page and was looking at their vans and thought the Pilot would be a potential match, not too high off the ground, good specs, full of stuff for the average joe and jill. And you had already bought one. Maybe I have a career as a psychic or spastic or something.
Funny how Big Girl looks so big and the Pilot looks normal sized, until you put them side-by-side. Impressive.
What does it have? Does it have grandkid entertainment systems in the back?
No grandkid entertainment systems other than what amusement grandma can provide.
DeleteThe point above about people seeing but not having it register in the brain is very common and one reason eyewitness testimony is so unreliable. We don't remember the things our eyes see, so it didn't happen, and we 'remember' things that we swear we saw but weren't actually there (IOW, we make up memories to fill in gaps).
ReplyDeleteInteresting that all my vehicles have been males in personality and name... maybe due to my driving personality being a bit 'assertive'??
I also hate most of the new 'driver aids' present - I do NOT need a nanny telling me the phone isn't linked or that I'm coming up on the car in front quickly, or that I'm changing lanes... Grrr!
There's tech I like, most of what's on the new car I'll use and probably argue with.
DeleteI argue with my nav system all the time.
I had a Honda CRV, a smaller version of the Pilot. It was extremely reliable. The only fault was that it had a small fuel tank so you could only go about 300 miles between refills. This was not good on long holiday runs from the UK to France. I then changed to a Skoda Superb estate with a 2l diesel. it had an effortless 650 mile range on a tank and was really economical - 50+ mpg on a run from Switzerland to the UK at an average speed of 60+ mph. The only fault was low profile tyres. You don't want them given the state of our roads. I now run a Ford Kuga, I think it's the Ford Escape. It has 'park assist'. I only used the system once and it scared me. BTW Honda used to manufacture in the UK but are moving out. I reckon my nest car will be a hybrid of some kind.
ReplyDeleteRetired
That Ford van I talked about higher up in the comments had a 2 1/2 hour fuel tank. You could idle, city drive, country drive, pull a trailer, run empty and the tank would last... 2 1/2 hours. Past 2.5 hours I had 10 minutes reserves. Crazy.
DeleteHate low profile tires. Love watching the speed-racers with low profile tires hit potholes or speed bumps as they are racing around.
Low profile tyres were a pain, they had no resistance to potholes whatever. I loved the Skoda. It was everything my wife and I said we'd never have in a car. It was black, had leather upholstery and was diesel but did it move. It was the best car we've ever owned. It was roomy, I'm very tall (6'6'') I could move the front seat back so far I couldn't touch the pedals. My sons, who are as tall as I am could sit behind me in comfort. The Skoda estate car was an excellent load mover. Skoda are part of the VW/Audi group so you get VW/Audi quality at a slightly lower price.
DeleteRetired
Unfortunately we were all advised that diesel cars were the ones to buy and then diesel became evil. Diesel cars are (or were) huge in Europe, they give big fuel economy and are very refined compared to the diesel cars of the early 90's.
I looked briefly at the CR-V, just too small compared to Big Girl. Nice looking vehicle.
DeleteBeans - Really don't like the look of a low profile tire, a bent rim waiting to happen here in New England!
DeleteRetired - Didn't know Skoda built cars, they built some excellent weapons during the war.
Delete(I can hear Basil Fawlty screaming, "Don't mention the war!")
Why would diesel be bad-think in Europe? It's more environmentally friendly, easier to produce, can be made fro non-crude oil, has everything going for it except performance in very very cold weather, like up in Finland during winter.
DeleteOtherwise, gee, I wish I had a diesel.
Diesels and cold, no fun. (Said the guy up in the high Rockies with a buddy whose diesel wouldn't start. In winter.)
DeleteHave a look at the VW emissions scandal. There is a big move to electric/hybrid but I reckon recycling batteries will be difficult as they have some nasty stuff in them. I don't think diesel is going away for a long time however.
DeleteSkoda were a joke car brand in the UK until the fall of the wall. They are part of the VW group and the product improved until it is now seen as a sensible buy.
Retired
I remember the VW emissions scandal.
DeleteThe hybrid batteries are a nightmare, both in the resources needed to make them and getting rid of them once they won't charge anymore. Diesel is a smarter option.
My boss had an Element that she loved (in that cool orange color, of course). Right up until it got stolen, used in a bank robbery, and then SET ON FIRE.
ReplyDeleteMan, who does that? Jerks!
DeleteMy in-laws have had a pilot for almost 20 years now. Very reliable car.
ReplyDeleteSecond day in and I'm enjoying it so far. Hope to keep it at least as long as the Element.
DeleteYou keep them long enough as I do, and you start to view them as part of the family.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing about those elements, at least out here. For one in good condition it’s worth more now than it was new.
I guess the salt back there is pretty brutal
The salt air, the salt on the roads in winter, does tear 'em up.
DeleteStill, the sales guy says they fly off the lot.
Nice looking car, and I'm very partial to blue.
ReplyDeleteThere is indeed a bewildering amount of dashboard electronics on new cars.
The trick is to not try to pay attention to everything, just the critical stuff.
DeleteOoooo! New Car!! Very Pretty Blue!!!
ReplyDeleteBut, yes, sad day. I had my sad day the end of January this year when I bought a Chevy Trax because the much loved Impala just couldn't make it up the mountain outside of Corinth with it's front wheel drive...and often gave trouble when driving in MI in sand which is what many of the "gravel" roads are out there. Plus it had 250K miles on it, and I didn't want to get stranded someplace on a busy day where the cell signal doesn't reach. So I got a Trax. Because I like to be able to pay off the car loan. It is good on gas, is big enough for what I need it for, does go well in snow--all wheel drive--and the price fit into my budget.
It does have a back-up camera, which is the absolute nuts for when I have to parallel park in Albany or Troy, but I still look around at all my mirrors cause that is how I was trained 40+ years ago, and, yes, I have seem people/cars that I didn't see when looking in the back-up camera thingy. But no GPS, I have my own after all, and like Beans, I too know how to read a map, and carry them in the car. I do use my GPS daily for work. And yes, it does have a fancy stereo system, but I just put it on either the local FM station for weather/traffic reports or Sirius/XM radio cause I spend most of my day in the car and I can listen to whatever I want. That is one of my very few splurges, and I use it all the time. So far, it has been a good car.
But I do miss that Impala. It was absolutely a family member!!
Enjoy your new car.
It's tough to say goodbye to an old trusted ride, but it was time.
DeleteAll these "helps" in new cars today are like autopilots in aircraft. They make for poor drivers and pilots who don't know how to fly.
ReplyDeleteMany of the Wilson family cars tend to stay in the family for twenty years or so. Oldest grandson is driving our 1995 Toyota truck his dad bought new, passed it to me and I passed it to the boy. It's still beautiful. Named? Of course - "Blue Lightning". Number two son still drives our 1999Toyota Avalon 210K miles on it now. Then there was my 1964 Porsche 356SC, bought new when I came back from Itazuke, sold on a grim day five years ago.
I wanted to keep the Element, but she just wasn't reliable enough for some of the things I need to do in the next few months.
DeleteSad to see her go, we had some times together.
Hey AFSarge;
ReplyDeletePretty Blue color on the Pilot, same color as my F150 :) and the Pilots are reliable. I added a backup camera to my 1999 F150 because I like to backup into parking spots because the new spots are so &^%$% small and I want to make sure that I don't tag the car on the other side and the Mirrors can only do so much. As long as the truck runs good, and with regular maintenance I ain't going to replace her short of some clown crashing into her, I'm keep the truck. I hate car notes.
It was time to bite the bullet and buy a new one. Hell, if I'm going to work for the next few years, I'll spoil myself with the new ride.
DeleteAfter driving the hot young new thing, you'll quickly forget about Big Girl, like you would an ex girlfriend! After paying off our house so we had to start spending that new cash, buying my wife our first SUV. Not as fun as my Mustang, but the bells and whistles on a new car are impressive.
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying the bells and whistles, and that new car smell!
Delete