This week, The Joy Club member and facilitator Kathy Feest shares her journey of cars through the years…
I have owned cars since I was sixteen. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania in the States, we needed cars to get anywhere as the bus service was nearly non-existent. To be fair, there was one bus between Sunbury, the “large” town in my neck of the woods, my small hamlet and the town where I went to high school. From Sunbury to my high school city was six miles or many hours away if you had to wait for the infrequent bus.
One of my first cars was a small black Corvair. The trendy car at the time was a Corvette, maybe I thought that’s what the garage man told me when he sold me my little black number. (Think the difference between a Porsche and a Polo). I have no idea how much it cost but it zipped me along those six miles quite nicely. My various summer jobs funded my purchase, a Corvette would have meant many more hours of working!
Riding around the town of Sunbury with the windows open and on the lookout for boys was the thing to do when you were a young teen on a weekend night before or after the local Saturday night dances. Round and round we went around the square flirting with the guys in the cute cars. We never drove around on our own, but always in a gang. The more the merrier. Full cars and music blaring on the radio on a summer night. I don’t remember ever meeting anyone on these tours around the block, but that never stopped us.
The next car I had was my favourite and saw me out of High School and into New York City. It was an MG Midget, a total guy magnet. There was always some guy wanting to tinker under my bonnet. It was red. And sporty. And a convertible. And English! I loved all things English, and I shouldn’t have been too surprised when I finally got to this country and loved the place even more than its cars. That MG ended up giving up the ghost on the way to my new life in New York City. But who needed a car in the city?
One of my first cars in England, forty five years ago, was a Hillman Hunter with sticky up turn signals (indicators) on the sides which always made me laugh. Not too long after the Hillman I bought another MG Midget. Red. My first husband managed to have an accident while driving my car and although he wasn’t hurt (fortunately), the car was a write off (along with the marriage after he also managed to sink our boat).
A range of company cars followed for many years and I took whatever was offered. Not one of them was an MG. Or red. When I worked in publishing for the Maxwell organisation, my company car had to be signed off by Robert the big boss himself. I worked in Devon on a small magazine and yet the big man himself had to sign my car off. Each week for months, my manager would phone the garage where they rented my car on a weekly basis until it was agreed by the big man that I could indeed have a car. No matter that it was part of the contract signed (by him of course) as well as my manager. Who knows what that must have cost!
I was always keen on another MG and when I was happily married and in need of a new car, my husband went to the garage with me as I was about to choose my own new non company car. He didn’t say anything but opened the door of the MG I was looking at and then once I was seated inside, he said, “Okay now get out”. Suffice to say, that was a performance. I bought something sensible instead – a car I could manage to get in and out of! It was a red Toyota Starlet. That darn car was with me for years as it wouldn’t die. Eventually, I was fed up with not having air conditioning and bought another car. This time I upgraded to a small Audi (red) . I have driven that car now for 14 years. But it is tired, and a diesel. That’s what they told me to buy when I got it…the best for the environment fourteen years ago. But now, I can’t use it in the Clean Air Zone (CAZ) unless I pay nine pounds a journey so that, coupled with the age of the car, not to mention my age, means it was time for another car. This one is a hybrid. An electric car will most likely be the next one I drive but for now, this does the trick.
After exploring the internet sites that do all the work for you these days about safety reliability and the rest, I test drove the small car that came top, and it was perfect. Small. Not too expensive. My favourite car colour – red. After my test drive I came home and looked on line at cars similar to the one I’d driven. I saved five thousand pounds. Between several phone calls with Salman, the sales agent, he made and sent me a video of the car I was considering. By the time you read this, my new red Toyota Yaris and I will be together. My new car has 1500 miles on the clock, is only six months old, and was owned by a mobility user. I hope they enjoyed it the short time they owned it. With my history of car longevity it will no doubt be mine for a good long time.
A whole world of car memories emerges when you buy a car in your seventies! I shall keep quite a few of them to myself. What is ironic is that even though I will be able to drive all over town and not worry about the CAZ zone, these days, most of the time, I take the bus!