Photo taken: September 19, 2009
Not many people hang on to their first car any longer than they have to… always wanting to upgrade to something bigger and better. I’m not like that. My 1998 Plymouth Neon, purchased used on Black Friday in 2000, and which continued to serve me well right up until the first weekend of this year, will always be special to me. This is one of the first photos I ever took with my very first digital camera I got at that time, and it is the image that best came to represent my car… humbly sitting in my driveway. So what if both of its front hubcaps shot off while driving down the road thanks to an idiot tire technician who stripped the nuts on them? Who cares if it had a cassette player, manual windows and an air conditioner that refused to allow the car to actually run? This was not a ride for those who appreciate the finer things in life… but that is not a phrase anyone would ever use to describe me…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I’m with you… I cried a river as I had to give my beloved hyundai from ’97 away….
I wanted to drive it forever, but even the good old cars break down eventually. The newer cars may be flashier and have more expensive gimmicks in them, but they are just brightly polished junk.
First car memories…. mom remembers hers. A little Dodge Omni that broke down so much she learned how to fix it…. once even while daddy held the flashlight for her on the side of the road at night. Now that was priceless. XOXO – Bacon
Awwww, I never did learn how to fix cars… and just about everything went out on that car at some point. Except the automatic transmission… that thing had a hell of a tranny.
Snorts with piggy laughter! Well, you can hold the flashlight for mom too. XOXO – Bacon
there is something about the character of those cars that are special only to us
That’s true. And my new car doesn’t have that feel yet. Maybe once the new car smell is entirely gone…
I think we’ve all had cars like that and they hold a…ahem…special spot in our hearts. I remember a hideous green Gremlin I owned back in the mid-70’s whose headlights would inexplicably shut off for no apparent reason. Usually not a problem but the first time it happened I was returning home on a country highway in the middle of no where in the middle of the night. Eeeeeeekkkkkk! WTH?
I think there was a warning about that in the movie…. never drive a Gremlin after midnight.
I think the warning was actually…never drive a Gremlin. Period. But I could have be wrong. 😈
I understand you so well. I loved my dark red Saab, born in 1990. We drove together about 200 000 kilometres, until it had over 330 000 km,cassette player, manual windows, manual gear box, big engine, 2 litres. I still miss it so much. It had a soul.
A soul is something that is severely lacking in today’s cars… though I guess anything really has to age well to get that feeling that it’s more than just an object, that it has a personality as well.
Garry kept his 1968 Dodge Challenger (bright orange convertible) for more than 20 years until finally when it wouldn’t run about 75% of the time, he decided he needed a new one. But he was very sad. That car was a star in its own right.
A convertible is the one thing in a car I might actually be a bit envious of. I’ve never even been a passenger in a topless car, let alone got to drive one. As someone who is used to driving with the window down from Spring through Fall, I think I’d like the wind in my hair…
There he is, old faithful! It’s those quirks that make it so adorable.
I miss all the Neon’s old battle scars, hopeless stains and buried treasures. And it needs a quirkier appearance so I don’t have to check the license plate before I try to get in it on a parking lot…
I think we’ve probably all had a favorite ride…..I loved my old Oldsmobile which was a full-sized one that was fun to parallel park (not)…..but I must admit, my Lacrosse is such a dream that memories of that old Olds are blurry by comparison!
Pam
Is there anything, other than maybe a bicycle, that is fun to parallel park? Not that I would even know since I’ve never tried it before…
I avoid it like the plague whenever humanly possible myself.