Twenty years ago (really? surely not.) I climbed into my first Volkswagen. It was a shiny silver 1982 Rabbit. Oh, how I loved it. I have fond memories of that car and the many road trips she provided. I spent some money on the repairs, but overall, it was a great car. I drove it until the Spring of 1995. The dealer gave me $500 trade in for it and I pried the Rabbit emblem off the back before I would let them have it.
My next VW was a red 1992 Fox. I took out 36 payments at 18% interest and was happy as I had no credit to speak of. Miss Lissie, my beautiful golden mutt, loved that car. If the weather was nice, I'd put down the window and she would rest her head on my shoulder, ears flapping in the breeze, as we drove. If the window wasn't down, she'd jump up into the back window and block my rear view. In the early spring of 1996, with only 5 payments to go, DH killed the Fox. It was a brutal and totally avoidable death. I was heartbroken. I cried and cried when I saw her smashed face in the junkyard.
After the Fox, we bought Maudie. She was a 1994 Ford Ranger pickup that was an impulse buy after a fight with a Saturn dealer. After having first told me it was fine, when I went to pick up the new car, the man told me I only qualified for 10K without a co-signer. Over his shoulder, I could see Maudie, with $9999 on her windshield. Even as I peeled out of the lot, giving them a high five minus four, I knew it was never really for me. But, soon we would be a two car family for the first time.
Clementine came to me on a U-Haul dolly behind my mother's big red truck. Meme found the car in a barn in West Texas, bought it for a grand, and towed it to Mississippi. Tee & I drove from Atlanta and met them for a weekend of gambling. I knew it would be a great car when I won enough to pay for the trip and recouped most of what I had just repaid my mom for the car. A pale blue '74 Beetle bundle of joy. Not knowing the car, Tee followed me and we prayed our way back to Georgia. OK, Tee prayed, I sweated. It was the summer of 1997 and she was my daily driver until the summer of 2000.
I was in love with my pale blue bug and had resisted the first year of the New Beetles. Oh, I had car lust every time I saw one on the road and pressed my face against their window stickers when the dealers were closed, but I was good. Then, in 2000 VW kicked off their Internet sales campaign with two colors you could only buy online: Reflex Yellow (think school bus) and Vapor Blue. Vapor Blue looked a lot like Clementine's faded blue, when, after a rain, the primer began to seep through the paint. I kept thinking if I could only hold out until 2003, the convertibles would be launched. I only made it until June, when late one night, after having built a Vapor Blue Beetle online for at least the hundredth time, I dropped it into the shopping cart and bought her. Well, leased her really. I did a three year lease that would end just as the convertibles came out. A perfect solution. Vapor Blue now, topless later.
My first contact with Penelope, or Penny, was an email from her when her cargo ship docked in Savannah. I kept the email for years before I deleted it. I test drove no bug before she arrived. She had everything I could get except for Turbo. I am a speeder at heart, and I didn't dare go Turbo. I couldn't drive her enough in the early days. I would shiver in the air conditioning and laugh at Hotlanta's weather. The first time I saw her snowflake show up on the outside temperature gauge we were up in the mountains and it actually snowed. Since it was snowing, I turned on the heated leather seats and scoffed at the North Georgia weather.
(Read this paragraph as: How NOT to buy a car!) When her lease was almost up, I drove Maudie to the VW dealer to check out the new convertibles. The backseat was so much smaller in them, I was hesitant to cramp Miss Liss. We had just come through the darkest time of our financial lives and I was afraid to purchase one of the new topless models. Our credit was in the dumps, so when VW called me to ask my intentions on the end of my lease, I jumped at the offer of 1% interest to refinance if I would go with the five year option. My payments dropped by over $100 a month, and I figured if I kept making the payments at the higher rate, I would be paid off in no time. It was my intention to do so, and we know what road that paves. So, in just a few months from now, my Penny will be paid off. Eight years to buy a car. Not the best financial decision of my life.
Tonight, my Penny is at the mechanic's. I've not been driving her much lately as her oxygen sensor light has been tripping on and off. I've been waiting until I could pay for it out of pocket. Before I took Penny to VW dealers for her service. She has not been cheap. The VW dealer here is crappy and if I thought I knew it before this week, I didn't know nothing. She's been sadly mistreated by them. I let them make me feel bad about my Penny. Late last year, I cleaned her up and came very close to trading her in for a bigger car. I even took my Mickey antennae ball off of her.
Our new garage of choice is a fabulous place. Their VW/BMW certified mechanic is sharp. He quickly picked up that I could "car talk" and we covered many issues on the phone Monday. As he went over her top to bottom, he would call and we would discuss her history and what had been done, or supposedly done, when. We agreed on what needed to be done now 100%. So, tomorrow, I will go to the garage and shell out $1041. That would just about pay her off if I sent it to VW.
As gas prices keep going up, I am reminded that I get great mileage. I only have a few payments left and soon she will be debt free. I have a great mechanic who will deal fairly with me. This weekend, when we drive her down to my parent's, I will have fun as it's a great road to drive. As I write this, I remember: I love this car. Think I'll go dig out a pair of Mickey Ears for her antennae.
Current reading: I am just starting The Millionaire Next Door. I read it years ago, but am picking it up again with renewed interest.
Special thanks to DL for her friendly description of "the bird" that I used.
No comments:
Post a Comment