How would you describe your first car: a pos, a hand-me-down, it's all I could afford, I bought it MYSELF, it was a gift or it was my FIRST love, an extension of me? Well, let me tell you about my 1996 Honda Civic. It was a gift and was needed.
See I walked to high school and borrowed my parents full-size Buick Station Wagon or Mercury Sable to go hang out with friends, run errands. Since I was going to be going to college across the State, my parents wanted me to have good reliable transportation (cell phones were only for extreme emergencies). I had also recieved a full-academic ride to college and room and board was $1500 a year or something ridiculous like that. (I went to a small state school in the middle of cow country.) As a gift, my parents would buy me a car, used.
It was Memorial Day weekend and there was the Ad "1996 Honda Civic EX, 76,000 miles, $8500 or best offer." So off me and my dad were to check out this amazing deal. It was black, spolier, sunroof, stick - which at the time I had no idea how to drive, but still thought it was pretty cool. The guy was trading it in for a 1998 Civic, but the dealership wanted to give him nothing for it, so he was selling it by owner. I still remember my dad trying to talk him down on price and just cringing. We settled on $8500 and I would get it on Monday.
It took me forever to learn how to drive that damn thing. I would come home from outings with my dad in various parks, side-streets, etc and scream "just sell the fucking car" (I didn't really curse pre-college either.) You may not think that St Louis is a hilly place, but let me tell you, every street in South St Louis has an incline of some degree, trust me I know. I never hit or rolled into anyone. I peeled out, I bucked, I killed it alot. But once I got the hang of it, we were off (sometimes taking the long way though to avoid any stoplight/stop signs on hills). I remember that first trip to college. I remember letting people drive my Civic in college - not even sure of that one myself. We seemed to float across I-70. Me and the Civic we were tight. We were constant companions from May 1998-August 2004 when I left for grad school in DC. I knew that she couldn't make the trip, but we re-connected on Holiday breaks. When I moved back home, we were off again. This time racking up sometimes 300 miles in a day doing hospice care. From one county to another - 4, 5, 6 hours at a time until something happened. Thanksgiving 2007 - she vibrated something terrible. I couldn't even drive her. My dad examined her and tried to get her home, but could not. We called a tow truck and had her taken back home. It was like a sad funeral procession following behind the tow truck. I can still remember the image. My dad was sure that it was the timing belt - afterall she was at 205,000 miles, way over due on the timing belt and still had the original clutch (thank you very much). So there she sat in my parents' driveway.
I had been looking for a new car due to her mileage, but had to speed up the process since I was renting a car to get me by at work. I decided on a 2008 Honda CRV LX, silver. She was brand new, less than 5 miles on her when I got her. New car smell everything. Less then 2 months later, a large dead tree limb fell on my roof, scratching it to the point of having to repaint it, broke off the driver's side door handle and left scratchs other places too. The new car was officially gone. She has since had her share of door dings and run ins in the parking garage at work. Note: both my cars have been hit on the passenger side back door from people not cutting sharp enough into parking spots - neither left a note. My CRV has taken Zoey and I to Estes Park, CO, Indiana Dunes, Indiana, Mammoth Cave, KY and Pensacola Beach FL. We are good friends, but not near the attachment of the Civic and I.
My CRV has 66,000 miles on it which for a Honda is barely broken in. The Civic (which my brother has since inherited once we realized that it was just the AC belt) has almost 220,000 miles and the orginial clutch still. The Civic is starting to fall apart. Her Civic emblem is missing off the back of the car and my brother says that probably one of the illegal mexican immigrants who lives in his Apt complex probably took it. nice. She still proudly displays my college window decal for a college that is now a University. It's heart-wrenching to see her at family events now.
Overall, I must say that I have loved my Hondas - just in different ways.
I absolutely loved my first car . . .yep, I'm that girl.
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