Saturday, May 16, 2009
Look Out!
My oldest daughter turns 15 this year and she's somewhat obsessed with driving. So I'm giving everybody advanced notice, we're coming to YOUR neighborhood to practice driving and parking skills! Just kidding:) So we've checked (pardon me, my wife checked) into insuring a student driver, because you never know when, not if, they're going to bump someone else's car, or accidentally run into a mail box or fence, or even do a lawn job (no wait, that was me). Of course I expected everything to be more expensive than when I was her age. Plus, there are good student discounts, which I don't think were ever offered to me. So I hope and pray she doesn't do anything too stupid in her teen years to adversely affect her driving privilege for the future. She has also looked into the price of cars. What she likes and what she will be able to afford are two different things. I think it might have been a little wake up call. Regardless, I'm sure she will need help, just as I needed help with my first car. I bought a 1972 VW Karmann Ghia for $200. It had an oil leak that needed fixed. One weekend, my step dad and myself decided to fix it. Had the motor out and ready to put back by lunchtime. We thought we would take a break and go eat a sandwich. While we're eating, we saw flames shooting from the garage! The furnace in the garage kicked on and the pilot light had ignited a pan of parts that were soaking in gasoline. It caught the car on fire and roasted the whole back end of the car. It was a total loss. But, I still had an engine, because it was sitting off to the side. I had owned that car for only 2 weeks. In about another 2 weeks, we found a 1969 VW Bug with no engine. Paid $150, and put the engine in and drove that car for the next 4 years! If that car could talk, I'd probably still be grounded:) Got any good "first car" stories? Please, do tell.
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My first car was a 1976 Cutlass Supreme with a 350 4 barrel. Talk about a gas guzzler! My parents bought it for me for $600. I was a pretty cautious driver, unless my friends were around. This one time I was filling up at a gas station near 72nd and Dodge with a couple buddies of mine. After gassing up, I hopped into the car, cracked up the stero (the only nice part of the car, of course)and punched the gas. Unfortunately, my coolness was short lived because when I pulled in I had my wheels cranked all the way to the right and my beast plowed into a concrete wall that was just to the right of my car. From that day until I sold it, the motor mount was bad, and everytime you would hit the gas, the engine would rock so much that the fan would rub against the fan shrowd. I thought my dad was going to be mad, but he said that is why I got you that car, it was cheap, and it had as much steel around me as possible. Dads are so smart!
ReplyDeleteGood Luck teaching Liv how to drive! Been there done that...still having heart palpitations. Ahhhh my first car. Grandpa paid like $100 bucks for the 1979 orange Datsun 210. Perfect for a teenage girl - it would only go 25 miles an hour when driving up hill and no power steering. BUT good times were had driving that car. Looking back the Datsun was the best of my teenage/early adult cars. Only went down hill from there with the Gremlin.
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