Fun Monday - Drive me Crazy

Tiggerlane, the Neophyte Blogger is hosting Fun Monday this week and here is what she wanted to see **I wanna see your CAR! It can be your current car, the first car you ever had, maybe your first new car with that new-car smell, a car you wrecked once, or even the dream car you would drive - given all the money in the world! Oh - and if you have a truck, SUV, lawnmower, whatever the local authorities allow you to drive, let's see it!**

Well, I couldn't find a picture of my current car, and although I can see it right now, parked right outside my office window, I think my co-workers might look at me weirdly if they see me taking pictures of my own car...so I snuck a quick one, but that's all you get! haha

That beautiful specimen is a 2000 Toyota Rav4, in a pearly white color. I love my car, even though it is a bit of a lemon...I've had SO MANY problems with this car, and put so much money into it in just the 4 years I've owned it, that people find it hard to believe I own a Toyota...Toyota's are supposed to be reliable, right? Yeah, not so much my car. However, I do love my car. It is a manual transmission, and I learned to drive stick with this car, before this one I had never even attempted to do so, so there's a certain sense of pride in owning a stick shift, and learning to drive one at 28. Yep, I'm talented like that!

I also dug around for pictures of my previous automobiles, but couldn't find any...and I know there must be pictures of at least my last car somewhere, but I'll be darned if I know where! Still, I've had such interesting relationships with all of my cars that I figured I'd just share my stories.

My first car was a 1979 Ford Granada in a burgundy reddish color. To say that car was a boat is a bit of an understatement. But man, was that ever the coolest car! I'm not sure I loved it then as much, but thinking back on it now, I wish I had that car still. For your reference, I looked up a photo of my car online: This was totally even the color of my car, it was a MONSTER, but man, did it run smooth! My friends called it "The Granola", and when I bought it, it came with an 8-track player, and a few old 8-tracks in the glove compartment. I had a new radio/cassette player put in, and the greatest mystery in radio wiring occured. Whenever I would drive over 70, my tape deck would speed up, and whatever was playing would turn into Alvin and the Chipmunks. I kid you not! I also recomment to parents of driving age teenagers everywhere that your teen's first car should totally be a Granada or another steel boat like it. I was rear ended a few times in this car, and while the cars that hit me would suffer noticeable damage, the Granola had nary a scratch. Man, I loved that car!

BUT, I was a teenage girl, and I wanted a cooler car, so I sold/gave my Granada to my cousin (who I believe killed it promptly...am I remembering correctly Paula?), and bought myself a Chrysler LeBaron...I believe it was a 1989, but I'm not really sure on that. Ah, my LeBaron! I thought it was such a stylish car. It was black, with red pinstripes, and a two door, and so sporty looking (after the Granada, pretty much anything was sporty looking)...oh and it was a Turbo which meant it had power. That is until my transmission started leaking, and then I had an automatic that would roll back on hills like a stick shift does. I actually had to carry transmission fluid in my car at all times, so that I could refill it if it happened to have leaked to much during any particular stop. I kid you not! And then there was that weird "paint flaking off" thing that happened to all the Lebaron's...which left the entire top of my car looking pretty in primer's grey...yep, loved that car (not so much).

After that, I decided to finance my first car, so that I could get what I thought would be a "quality" car. But I bought a Pontiac Grand Am, so boy was I in for a surprise. Those of you who have owned a Grand Am know exactly what I'm talking about. But I did love that car. I had it for 6 years, and although it turned into a money pit toward the end, it was a beautiful car. It was white, and slick, and it drove like a dream. It was slightly possessed, however, and earned the name of "Casper, the friendly car" pretty much during my first week of owning it. I was driving one night when out of nowhere the automatic locks began to lock and unlock by themselves. Things of this nature would happen constantly, the radio would shut off on its own, the wipers would turn on on their own, and every time I'd honk the horn, the fuse would blow, and I'd lose my wipers and my horn. I actually carried spare fuses with me in the car at all times, so that if I did need to use the horn, I could. SERIOUSLY! But still, I can honestly say that the Grand Am was my favorite car to date. But when my friendly mechanic told me "I'm not fixing your car anymore, it's time to get a new one", I figured Casper was ready to retire. All the way to the dealership, where I was trading it in, I begged it not to die on me. I miss that car!

And now I have Casper Jr., the Rav. We won't discuss all the things that have already gone wrong with this one, we'll just say that hopefully it'll be good to me for a few years more.

Maybe by then I'll have saved enough for my dream car:

Yeah, right...

To see all the Fun Monday Participants, head on over to Tiggerlane's!