Thursday, November 11, 2010

My Honest Opinion: 1979 Subaru Station Wagon

Unable (read: unwilling) to keep my sarcasm at bay for much longer, I felt compelled to make my MHO post a story instead of an actual review.

Imagine yourself.

Newly graduated from college.

Newly dating the man of your dreams.  (Who happens to be living some 1,000 miles away from you)

Living at home and working 2 jobs to pay off college debt.

And trying to find friends to hang out with in the mean time.

(You know, the 2 hours a week when you aren't at work.)

Imagine the realization that you cannot afford a car payment.

(You can barely afford your cell phone.)

And your mom generously offers to let you use her clunker that she scored for $500 last winter.

That looks like this on the outside.

Only with a little more gold speckle.

And looks like this on the inside.
Only with a lot more foam and a lot less fabric.

That runs like a tanker truck.

Even in the snow.

Even in foot high snow.

And imagine that you just learned how to drive a manual.

And now you are going to be driving a manual everywhere.

Everyday.

And my honest opinion of the ugly beast that was older than I was?

That car was better than any timex watch ever could be.

"Takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'" doesn't even touch what we put that car through.

It took alot to kill that car. (much to my dismay)

Like 2 years worth of running it on empty.

Lots of embarrassment.

Lots of stalling out.

Lots of cruising through the snow.

In the car that you could hear coming from a block away.

And no one riding with me - EVER.

But we got every bit of our $500 out of it.

And I got like 30 something miles to the gallon. 

And you know what? 

It was a really, really good car.


Because it was a great car, despite it's complete ugliness.

And it ran like a dream, even with 270,000+ miles on it. 

Some days, I really miss that car.

 
But not today.
 
Today I am really thankful for a car that has air conditioning and covered seats.

2 comments:

Roberta said...

Love it! I had a 1979 VW Rabbit and that car wouldn't die either. It was a standard and we lived in NH at the time and it started every day and jumpstarted all my friends and co-workers when their fancy cars wouldn't turn over ;) My ceiling came down and talk about ugle. I finally sold it the day the hood flipped up while I was going 50 mpg with my son in the front seat...he was about 10 and I had to have him roll down his window to help me pull over without going in the ditch or hitting someone. When the car stopped I was shaking so bad and my son and I just looked at one another and burst out laughing...I think we did that so that we wouldn't scream/cry. That was before cell phones and I had to flag someone down to call a wrecker...ugh! Those were the days my friend...now I've got that song in my head ;) Have a great evening, fondly, Roberta

thomas harrison said...

yep hard to kill, i had one in derby wa for a couple of years and i put it through some pretty rough places but it kept going, and yes i miss it