TALES OF CARS WITH CHARACTER (CRAPPY)

Dedicated to anyone who has had to drive an embarassing car:

Well, my precious cousin, who I really think of as my sister, is on her way to Athens today to pick up her new car! What an exciting time- I remember getting my first new car: wait... what am I talking about?! I had to drive my Grandfather's 1990 Pontiac Grand Prix that had been handed down from my Nana to my Papa because some shrimp spilled in the trunk on our beach vacation, and even though he had it professionally cleaned she could still smell it, and the truth is, if the day was hot enough, you could. The poor car shorted out all the time for no apparent reason so you couldn't brake for squirrels or the dang thing would just quit on you. Sometimes it would even quit for no reason going up a hill and you would just start to RoLL back down- fun times.... I think everytime my friends and I went somewhere they would opt to drive. We actually nicknamed the poor guy the POS (piece of s%#T) 2000. I do have to say that it hurt my pride a little when I was shorted out on the side of the road and then teens in their convertable audi stopped and asked me if I needed help. "No!!! I am fine, it just needs to rest!" (as I was trying to call my parents on my Zach Morris phone which NEVER had service.) I was also was awarded the front spot at school that year, so not only did I have to drive the car, but you could see it glinting in the sun if you looked out of the cafeteria! It looked even worse next to the land rover, Z3, and benz parked beside it. I have to admit, it is really nice to have a good dependable car, but crappy car stories are the best, they really do build character. Things like the ability to crank your car up with a key and take it out, yet the car still runs, is the stuff of the movies, which is one friends story, or another similar story where she could take the keys out of her Dodge Fox to open the glove box and then put them back in the ignition, all while driving! Continuing with the Fox episodes, it had no air, so a tiny fan was plugged into the cigarette lighter and attached to the dash for a nice breeze, the drivers side outside latch was broken so she had to manually roll down her window (yes manually, they weren't always automatic) to turn her key in the door to open it and get out. This is not to even mentioning how she carried around fan belts to replace hers that popped off on a regular basis! Or how bout my friend whose drivers side lock is broken so you have to crawl in the passenger side to let yourself in, or how the driver window doesn't roll down so you have to lay your seat back to the back window to get your drive-thru. Or how bout a loose windshield wiper switch that randomly turns on as you are driving down the road- truly priceless! Now as an adult I have a pretty nice car, one I am not embarrased of, but it seems to be in the shop quite a bit. So not only do I get the pleasure of throwing hundreds of my sweat and tears into my car, but to add serious insult to injury I am back to driving my Grandfather's sweet LeSabre,which is what he replaced the Gran Prix with. At least I know I won't get a ticket, it is hard enough to get it up to the speed limit, and plus they think I am little old lady and what heartless policemen is gonna give them a ticket?