Tuesday, January 10, 2012

"Cars Aren't Meant to Last Forever" and Other Lies

This year, Blaine is turning 12. He's going to outlive us all.

My dad, me and Blaine back in high school. My hair was so unfortunate.

Blaine is the name of my car. I asked my high school friends to help me name him before they'd seen him, and they decided on Blaine because it sounded like a name for a hot army guy. And um, my car is purple.

I wrecked him in college when I ran into some guy's lowered tailgate. At the time, I didn't have enough money to get the hood replaced, so I just drove around with the mashed-in hood. And then when I did have enough money for a new hood, I figured, "Well, I've been driving around like this for five years already, what's the point?"


Now, Blaine has more than 150,000 miles on him. Probably way more than that. I'm not sure, because I just noticed this morning that my odometer isn't working anymore. Blaine also just got new tires, and we're predicting that these will be the last set of tires he sees. It's also just about time for the battery to die again, because I've been figuring Blaine is on his last leg for the past three years or so, and just continued to get the one-year batteries so as not to waste money in the event that he bit the dust. His check-engine light has been on for almost two years. He is a hot mess.

But hey! He's turning 12! And I intend to drive Blaine until he just can't go another mile. So come on, baby, Hondas are supposed to be fine up to ridiculous amounts of mileage. Keep on chugging. If I buy you that two-year battery this time, you better not die within the week.

Tell me about your first car! Do you still have it? What was its name?

15 comments

  1. Wow, that's amazing! My mom usually can get her cars to last a little over 10 years before she moves on.

    My first car was actually a hand me down from my brother, a Hyundai Elantra. I loved it, manual roll down windows, tape deck and all! My second car was a hand me down from my mom. I haven't named any of my cars, but I tend to think they're all girls.

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  2. Unfortunately, I do not have my first car as it was totaled in a bad accident. :-( But I am still driving my second car, and I am proud of say that it will be 11 years old this year and has over 130k miles on it!

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  3. @Lauren, HA! Rock that tape deck! I'm pretty sure whoever owned Blaine before me had the tape deck replaced with a CD changer, since it's not the system that the car would have come with fresh off the lot!

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  4. My first car died a way-too-early death, but I'm still trucking on my second car - it's 15 years old!

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  5. My first car my parents bought new.... when I was 8. It was our family car, and by the time I started driving (I waited until 18/19) they didn't want it any more so dad sold it to me for $1.
    I was driving it up until last April, when some jerkward totaled it when it was parked (!!) on the street. It was 19 years old and still going!
    The tires were only a year old, the transmission was replaced 5 years ago.... of course it had little things wrong, like the key only working in the driver's door, not the passenger or the trunk; the rear window sprayer didn't work, there was a small tear in the backseat upholstery.

    The 'crash' wrote it off, but I still managed to sell it for $500 for parts, and after almost 20 years, that poor little Mazda didn't owe me anything. I think it had a few more years in it too!

    I have noticed though - I was never very worried about parking it on the street, or in dark places or whatever... but now that we have a new-new car (not just new to us!) there's no way I'd park it out on the road! I think the fact that the Mazda only had a tape deck in it made me feel safer about break-ins.

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  6. @Heather, you officially win! I definitely treat different cars differently too. I have no problem parking in tight spots, but my mom's car is much newer and she still parks out in the boonies so no one will ding her car!

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  7. I am so with you on driving them until they can't go anymore! My car, the Green Bean, is my baby and I will drive that car until it turns to dust.

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  8. My Jetta Betty is turning 11 this year. While my front isn't bent, about 3 yrs ago, when I was backing out a parking spot at Big O Tires (having just got Betty new tires) I backed into a fire hydrant (luckily not damaging the hydrant) and put a nice sized hole in my bumper. Said bumper's paint is now flaking off & I'm afraid to wash it and speed up the paint flaking process. Betty has roughly a bajillion miles (give or take) and her check engine light recently appeared again. Oh & her AC broke this past summer & costs more than she is worth to fix. I've always said I'd drive Betty until she wouldn't go anymore or cost more than she was worth to fix, which is why we almost bought me a new car last July, but ended up leaving b/c the car dealership was being an arsehole. Now, I've promised Betty to my co-workers high school aged son and I'll probably give her up this spring or summer when some of the new model cars come out. But, I'm going to miss Betty :(

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  9. My first car wasn’t mine at all. My mom and I used to share a sedan. When I graduated from college, I got a Metallic Blue Mini Cooper as my graduation gift. I named it after my guardian angel, Gab (Gabriel), to keep me safe while driving. We’ve been together for almost 3 years now. I really love my car so much!

    -Stelle Courney

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    1. Mini Coopers are such cute cars! I always wanted a metallic blue car when I was a teenager. :)

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  10. @Stella: we have the same car! But I purchased it for myself after my first year in my first job. I love blue too, and I was very happy to have a Metallic Blue Mini Cooper which I then named -- Shawn.

    -Ivo Beutler

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  11. It’s so nice of you to keep driving Blaine until the end. You still have a lot of hope for this car. Well, that’s great. Just continue looking forward of being with Blaine for more wonderful years!

    Leisa Dreps

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