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I lost a dear friend last week. A friend that had faithfully been with me for the past four years and stood by me during my darkest moments. She was around when no one else was and we spent many special moments wandering all over town together. The fact that I am blogging about her loss almost a week later is a reflection on my declined blogging proclivities rather than my love for her company. And I even saw her with someone else yesterday afternoon and probably she didn’t notice me but I still couldn’t help smiling as I drove past.
I am talking about my much-loved Toyota Tercel whom I finally let go this past week. She served me fine for the past four years and was my first vehicle in this new world. Greenhouse gases and all, your car can be your best friend. It lends you an air of independence especially in this sprawling urbanized country so much that once you have it you can never understand how you lived without it. It’s bright blue color was in direct violation of the international rule #26 of manhood and I received much taunts and jabs thanks to my girl-friends (note the hyphen please). But at least three of them passed their driving exams thanks to her silent cooperation. Her color was distinct and although nothing to boast about but evoked exclamations of recognition when traveling friends espied her lookalikes elsewhere. Some even wondered if only Tercels are made in that bright blue color; I guess they are. Finding her in a crowded and sprawling parking lots of big box retailers was never a problem.
That said, it would be wrong to say that she didn’t give me the usual share of problems that comes with a used car. Although I bought her for far less than I had expected to pay for my first car, I spent more than twice that over the years keeping her in shape. I would have spent that much if I had gotten a more recent ride anyway, I told my doubting friends. But was it worth it, you betcha. I made many memorable trips. Three trips from Atlanta to Savannah, one to the southern parts of hick country Georgia to interview for a job, one to Nashville also from Atlanta and the best of all, making the ride all the way from Atlanta to College Station, Texas with all my possessions. This doesn’t even include the countless trips in and around Georgia’s slyvan surroundings and numerous state parks. She withstood the alternate weekend drives to Houston to meet up with Ash.
Thankfully, I didn’t meet my end with her especially with my habit of sleep-driving which thanks to a stern fiancee is hopefully history now. Plenty of my roomies and trust me, I have had many of them in my long stay here have also much to thank her for. Not just for weekend groceries but also for umpteen job interviews that she carried them to. She was involved in only one accident and that too causing the other two cars involved to crash into each other so it was a unfortunate yet lucky break. The no-speeding record however is no indicator of her speeding abilities. I guess she was just lucky enough not to be spotted probably because cops must be snickering and not expecting her to go speeding by especially with all those shiny sports cars and hunky SUVs around her.
As age got to her, parts of her began to fall off, one of which was the fuel cover. And now you may understand the problem of trying to find that extra color from that exact model from more than 10 years back. Even scrounging through the salvage yards of a small Texan town didn’t bring any luck so ultimately had to do with a cool black substitute which went well with the side runners. The last problem was when it unexpectedly had a flat tire in the freezing days a month back. Apparently some bugger let out the air because pumping in air fixed it but that made me realize I had to let go before it was too late. And it sold in double quick time too and got me as much as I expected.
I guess you never can forget your first car and in spite of the troubles it may have given you, you still remember only the pleasant memories. Good bye, dear friend! I hope you are being taken good care of.
Technorati Tags: Tercel, Toyota, car
by Patrix | on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 7:27 pm | 
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February 13th, 2007 at 8:43 pm reply
Nice use of the tag… to throw off the readers… :)
February 13th, 2007 at 9:26 pm reply
OI, gotta get those feed readers here somehow :)
February 14th, 2007 at 12:14 am reply
Ha!
You get them here by not offering full feeds, you devil!
February 14th, 2007 at 11:01 am reply
Confused, no re. I offer full feeds but the ‘more’ tag cuts them off in the feeds. The font is already too big so don’t want to pack my front page with just one post.
February 15th, 2007 at 7:24 am reply
Anyone can see thru ur stunt! I was pretty sure that it was a car - a blue friend :). See everyone’s attached to their cars! its not just me :p
February 15th, 2007 at 11:58 am reply
Twilight, as you can see in the comments at least one fell for it…kya karein, not everyone is as smart as you are.
February 15th, 2007 at 12:54 pm reply
what is it with u boys and your cars.
February 15th, 2007 at 3:16 pm reply
Gabby, the same that is with you girls and shoes. Except ours are more (just a little though) expensive.
February 16th, 2007 at 4:31 am reply
Gabby you mean there’s nothing between you and your car? (apart from the cushion). I love my car and am not so particular abt shoes/bags… and no, I am girly enough. I love pink too :).
February 16th, 2007 at 9:22 am reply
I LOVE my current car (RAV4) and my ex car(corolla).. though that didnt stop me from ramming my tiny little corolla into a hatti like honda pilot and totalling it.. to this day I miss it.. :(
February 16th, 2007 at 9:31 am reply
Twilight, I thought you were on “our” side until you mentioned pink.
Sqrl, to rub a lil namak into the jalle, at least I gave mine a farewell in sound health :) But a SUV now? whatever happened to our environment movement? Don’t tell me RAV4 is a car-UV.
February 16th, 2007 at 1:07 pm reply
well..there were two reasons
a) we share the car, so i get picked up and dropped off on Ash’s ( my Ash, not yours :D) way to work..and he needs a 4wd for driving on freeways in the buffalo snow..toyota stopped making the 4wd matrix in ‘06 :( and kuch bhi ho, we are toyota loyalists..
b) when I rammed into the pilot, all that happened to the pilot was a fender bender.. and my corolla got totalled.. so safety wise it’s better to have a bigger car..esp when u see cars lying in the ditches on a snowy day..
The second car we will be buyin is going to be a prius ;) trying to wash some sins u see..
Patrix replied: Nothing wrong about being Toyota loyalists. I had a good experience with one so when I can afford to buy a new one, I’ll probably go with a Toyota too. Ash’s 4WD reason is valid but your reason of safety is not.
Larger SUVs merely give an illusion of safety and have known to overturn easily as compared to regular cars. The reason your car got totaled was that it absorbed most of the impact and kept you safe. I think you rather have your limbs intact than save your car. If stronger the better spreads, we might see tanks on the roads. Anyway, keep us posted on your Prius purchase when you get it.
PS. Trying this new format for replying. Let me know if this is preferable.