Cars I Have Owned
I
have written about cars that I learned to drive in. I have also written about
cars that I have rented. I guess that is fitting enough because some of all of
that took place before I got my own vehicle.
It
was the spring of 1968. I had just moved to Saskatoon and was living with my
sister Loretta and her newish husband Dave in a two-bedroom apartment right
beside Idlwyld Freeway on 11th St. There was a young woman there that I was
determined to further acquaintance with, having been a fellow-student of hers
a year earlier at Canadian Mennonite Bible College in Winnipeg. How could you
do that unless you have a car?
My
brother-in-law was experienced in things automotive and so we went
car-shopping. I remember it coming down to a choice between 2 vehicles. One was
a redone bronze 1959 Ford Sudan, I believe for $300. It was obviously it's owner's idea of a hot
car. It had customized wheels and black sidewall tires which were only
beginning to gain acceptance. The most unique feature about it was at that it had
a button under the dash that you could engage to make sure brake lights did not
operate if you were caught speeding. That way you could slow down and even turn
a corner, hoping to lose the cop, especially in the dark. Maybe I was a little
leery about that, being the law-abiding citizen that I am. I opted for the
black and white 1961 Chevrolet Bel-Air sedan being sold by an older gentleman
for $600. It was only a 6 cylinder with a 3-on-the-tree but it had a radio and
nice blue interior. My brother-in-law said I was really being cautious; I had
the car tested at a garage before I bought it. It needed new shock absorbers,
which I shortly replaced. Being a black car with a white stripe down the side,
it was not a stretch to name it "Lil’ Skunk", which I at one point
painted on the rear with red.
I
did have 2 motor vehicle accidents with that car. I was in a hurry to get to
class at the University after being at my sister's for lunch with my
brother-in-law on one occasion and ran into the side of a car that was approaching
from my left at an uncontrolled intersection in the residential area. Because I
was on the other vehicle's right, she was deemed to be in the wrong. I ended up
against the curb on the other side of the intersection with a flat tire and
leaking radiator but limped a couple of blocks farther south to a repair shop.
That was only after I had gone to the door of a nearby house to call for help
for the lady whose car I had run into; hers was a brand-new 1968 Mercury
Montego. The other accident was really very minor. Leaving church one Sunday
morning, the left corner of my front bumper met the left corner of another
parishioner's bumper on the icy road, but nothing really happened to either car
with how they were made in those days.
I
did get to date that girl, taking her on many a date with my right arm around
her, even shifting those steering wheel column gears with my free left hand as
young drivers were wont to do in those days, and in fact we became engaged.
However, that did not last, and neither did the car. Two-and-a-half-years later
I was in a new relationship and decided I needed a new vehicle. To this day I
marvel at how I accomplished that. I was a full-time university student in
pre-med science working part-time as a nursing orderly at the (now Royal)
University Hospital. It was a unionized position though and I was making close
to $400 a month full-time equivalent, which was good pay for those days.
Perhaps I had learned something from my sister and brother-in-law's experience
with loans and finance companies. Dave was always buying a vehicle. I prepared
a budget and went to a finance company, as those were supposedly easier to get
money from. To my surprise, I was turned down. I had no option then but to go
to my own bank, the Royal. I calmly presented my case and the manager gave me a
loan! I believe it was for the entire price of the car, which was $2005.
I
had seen an ad for a Datsun 1200 Coupe, which was a brand-new import in those
days. I went out and ordered a powder-blue model. Not long after I got a call
saying that they had got a car in, but it was red, did I want it? I never
thought about it until now, but my father's first new car had also been red! I
said yes, then drove that four-cylinder 96 hp car through 2 major engine jobs
until the clutch went in my first year of medicine in the fall of 1978. By that
time it had a few small dents and was beginning to leak through the floor if we
drove through puddles in the rain. Rust-proofing was obviously not in those
days what it is now. Someone had run into the back when my brother was using
the car on one occasion and on another when I needed a push to get it started
on a very cold Winnipeg winter morning, the tow truck only added insult to
injury with the rear end dents. That car went from Burns Lake in northwestern
BC to Thompson in northern Manitoba, Ohio in the US and many points in between.
My family, friends and I had a lot of adventures in it. Because it was so small
and light and nimble we often took it off road. Once, heading back to Winnipeg
after having been in Saskatoon for a Christmas visit after moving away from
there, the wheel bearing in the front went on it around Yorkton. My friend
Peter Froese and I had to spend the night in in ancient small hotel in the cold
in Sheho before limping into Yorkton in the morning to get the bearing fixed.
We hauled out my trusty old Sharp transistor radio and listened to the usual
rundown of the year's hits before the New Year rang in and we retired for the
night. There was not even an alarm clock or TV in the rooms in this hotel, let
alone a private bathroom. They really could not do the job in Yorkton after
all, but packed it well enough so that I got to Winnipeg and got it
definitively repaired. I believe it had close to 200,000 miles on it when I
actually sold it, to a co-worker if my memory serves me correctly. The
customizing touch I used on this vehicle was white Canadian Tire pain-striping
tape along the top of the fenders for an accent. When tape players became the
rage, I also had a cassette player installed under the dash.
By
this time, we were married and expecting a child. I was doing a fair bit of
woodworking and carpentry, making furniture for our new home, hauling materials
from our local co-op store. That must have been why I decided we needed a
station wagon. There were still 2 car dealerships in Gladstone, Manitoba at the
time, where I had begun my first medical practice. I took a new bronze colored
1979 Pontiac Le Mans wagon for a test drive and my wife and I drove to the nearer
larger center of Portage la Prairie to see what they had there. I settled on a new
Plymouth Volare wagon, also bronze, 6 cylinder, 4 door, automatic, with power
steering and radio, for $6000. I drove back to Gladstone and returned the
Pontiac with the Plymouth salesman delivering my new purchase directly to our
home. Another driver from that dealership followed him to take him back. I
guess that was a little nervy, using a test drive from one dealership to buy
from another, although I did not have that intention to begin with; I just got
a better deal, which would not be surprising in a larger center.
We
may have also had in mind, buying the station wagon that we could sleep in the
back in lieu of tenting when we traveled, as we did that on more than one
occasion, even after we had our son. That wagon served us well for 4 years,
taking us on a couple of trips to BC during that time. The coldest night in the
back of the car was on one of those trips, already in October, and the Icefield
Parkway between Jasper and Lake Louise. We had driven too late and found the
inns on that route already closed for the season. We were on our way to visit my
parents who had moved to Kelowna in 1975 so it was no longer enough just to
drive to Saskatchewan, where their last home had been Swift Current. One thing
I did with that vehicle was to add an aftermarket cruise control, which we
found very convenient.
Four
years later, what were then known as utility vehicles, now SUV's, were becoming
popular. Anne was away visiting her family in Taiwan with our son, who was
going on four at the time. I made up for my test drive of the past by going to
the local Pontiac-Buick-GMC dealer and placing an order for a Jimmy S-10. This
was the new small version of the older bigger GMC Jimmy. I was still being
somewhat cautious and thrifty; I only got a 6-cylinder two-wheel drive and no
radio. I knew I could get a good-enough radio/cassette player installed at a
lower price from the local RadioShack dealer than what the add-on would be from
the car dealer. I had been spoiled with the cruise control I had gotten on the
Volare though, so had ordered that. I had also ordered 5-spoke steel wheels
with wide rims and large tires; I was doing a lot of country driving to rural
clinics. The Volare had come equipped with a roof rack but I added this later
on our Jimmy. I often kept the spare tire up there. Obviously, theft was not
that much of an issue in the country in those days. I sold the Volare wagon in
the community.
I later
installed silver reflective coating on the inside of the 2 large rear side
windows to keep out the sun. When Anne was learning to drive at one point and
we ended up in the ditch, jarring the vehicle so much that one of these windows
popped out, because it had that screen on it, I had it replaced with smoked
glass courtesy of the insurance company at no extra charge! I had also placed
plastic silver red-centered strips down the sides as door guards. The other
customizing touch I executed on this vehicle was to place parallel yellow and
orange pinstriping along the top of the fender until the back of the front door
windows and then up the B pillar.
This
was the only vehicle I ordered from the factory. Because I had made all the
choices, I obviously really liked it. It was high off the ground, had the V6,
and the utility of the rear compartment again for hauling things. However, a
year after we got back vehicle, our family had grown to 6! By that time we had
2 of our own children and to events cousins were living with us to go to high
school. We really needed a vehicle that was larger and had 4 doors.
The
minivans had just entered the market. They were very popular from the start. We
had to drive all the way to Killarney to test drive the Dodge Caravan, as there
were not even any available in Portage la Prairie, Neepawa, Minnedosa or
Brandon! Anne stayed home with baby Anika, but I packed up the other 3 and off
we went. I had just paid $13,800 for the Jimmy the year before, and I believe
they wanted $16,000 for the minivan. I was not prepared to pay that much more.
We ended up driving the SUV until the summer of 1987. By that time, with the
number of us crowded into the vehicle's 5 seats, we were also getting tired of
the heat.
By
this time, Anne had already also learned to drive, with the help of the Driver
Education Program run by the local high school. She needed to drive to begin to
take our son Ansel to some of his activities such as skating and music lessons
during the day when I was at work. We ended up buying a car that fit my definition
of being somewhat sporty. It was a fastback bronze colored 1979 Dodge Arrow
with a 2 L engine and floor-shift automatic. This car was made by Mitsubishi
and I recall reading the popular Lemon-Aid Used Car Guide's report saying that
this was one of “the best compacts that Chrysler never made;” it just sold them
under their name. That helped with some of the driving issues with all 3 of the
older children their activities. We bought back in 1984 and used it well until
1989. It had the radio but no cassette player; I added that later. The only
further customizing I ever did with this car was photo-edited from pictures of
it. By this time the mini-computer had entered our lives and I also customized
the Jimmy further with that type of program.
By
that time, we had moved to Brandon, having gotten somewhat stressed out with
the increasing demands of being on call in a rural setting after 7 1/2 years.
Harry, the male cousin of the 2, had already also gotten his Driver's License
and purchased his car, a mammoth 1977 Buick Electra from a gentleman in the
community! That helped with some of the family driving too. In 1987, we both
got new vehicles. He was going to graduate from high school and ordered a
bronze Pontiac Sunfire sedan. All of this was actually paid for by his doctor
father of course.
I
had meanwhile spotted a very attractive looking white wagon in the sales lot at
the local Jeep-Volvo-Renault dealer. It was the 1988 Medallion 4-door, which
was being reasonably favorably compared with the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.
I was getting used to the wagon/SUV type of vehicle by this point because I
always seem to be carrying things in the back. We also went on enough trips so
we needed luggage room. Indeed, when it came to power, interior finishing and
design, it was a very comfortable car. It had a Blaupunkt stereo. It came with
cruise control, and air-conditioning, a first for us. It was a 2.4 L
four-cylinder, but could go up hills without downshifting. My baby brother
Steven, who by this time was becoming an accomplished mechanic, said that was
European design for you. The dealer added black pinstriping to the top of the
fender line before I took it home. Seems the artistic creative side of me
always has to do something extra with my automobiles. It is also probably me
expressing individuality. Indeed, when I purchased this car, a French import,
one of my professional partners commented that taking a chance on a somewhat
unknown vehicle reflected my heritage of pioneer spirit. He was an English immigrant
himself.
I
was sad to see the Jimmy go, but a nurse with whom I worked at the Brandon
Mental Health Center really wanted it. He was somewhat of a car nut himself and
so I was glad to have him take it. He did not do that much with it. Externally,
the most I saw was some checkered painting down the side panels in place of my
door guard stripes.
I
will mention here a car that I drove for 2 years even though I didn't own it.
The CEO of the regional health center where I worked at the time was quite open
to working with me on gaining benefits in lieu of increased salary. I was quite
happy to take the use of a new the least 1981 Ford Fairlane sedan for a couple
of years that reason. I used it for work, and paid back mileage if I used it
for anything personal. It was somewhat of a lightweight sedan but a nice enough
vehicle with 2 tone light and dark blue paint job. This was arranged because I
was regularly going on out of town trips for clinics at the nearby Sandy Bay
Indian Reserve as well as to the rural outposts that this 7 Regions Health
Center served. On one of those occasions a large truck swerved to miss some
Canada Geese that were walking across the highway and dented my front end, as I
had pulled out to pass him just before this happened. I never had a worse
accident than that with it. A more upsetting episode with it though was when I
spun out and ended up in the ditch during one of those ice storms that the
Prairie can be famous for. Hardpacked ice on top of the snow from the rain by
that time left a linear mark behind the rear wheel on the fender and also
damaged the will cover. Somewhere in getting in and out of the car and the tow
truck when it came to pull me back onto the road I also lost a good pair of
very soft leather gloves. I chose to stay at the local motel in Shoal Lake that
night before driving on home in that storm.
It
will have become apparent to the reader by now that, apart from both my and
Anne's first vehicles, all of our purchases have been of new cars. The main
reason for that is that I am not much of a mechanic and so never wanted to take
risks with used cars. I am also not really that much of a risk-taker, in my own
eyes (ask my financial advisor), in spite of my colleague's comment above. The
other reason was that I could afford it. It really wasn't about trying to keep
up with the Joneses though. As a Christian of Anabaptist persuasion, I do try
to maintain some level of simple living and so have never indulged in getting
anything very expensive, luxurious or exotic when it came to an automobile,
even if I could afford it. Anne had always been partial to German vehicles
because she knew they were well-crafted, and for the longest time opposed to
Japanese vehicles, and at one point I even went to a BMW dealership to look at
one for her, but that is as close as I've ever gotten to getting anything more
than standard type vehicles.
What
we did get in 1989 when the Dodge seemed to have run its course was a brand-new
silver Volkswagen Jetta. This was Anne's choice. We had often seen it
advertised as a good alternative to more expensive German touring vehicles. For
$16,000 we got an automatic with stereo, power steering and brakes,
air-conditioning and cruise control. Anne/we (both Ansel and Anika learn to
drive on this car) drove that car until we decided to downsize to one vehicle
prior to moving to BC in 2005. By this time the doors and fender panels had
become quite rusty and so our handy neighbor, Don Johnston, replaced them with
some maroon doors and right front fender panel. In her simplicity and
thriftiness, Anne did not bother to get them painted silver to match the rest
of the car. There was a somewhat popular movement among older women at this
time called the Red Hat Society. I teased Anne that she was starting the
Red-Door Society. She responded that made it easier to find her car in the
parking lot versus all those other silver cars. I couldn't argue with that.
We
used this on family trips sometimes instead of the Medallion too. I am not sure
that we ever took it to BC but we did take it to the Rockies in 1991 when my
brother-in-law and his family joined us on a vacation when my father-in-law and
their adopted sister came to visit us. We also took it to Montréal when Ansel
started university there. He was helping to drive by that time too. The front
transmission went on it when we were in Ottawa and so we had a major repair job
at Montréal by the time we got there. We never had a major accident with it
though. Ansel ran into the curb once and so we had to replace a wheel. One time
when we were returning from a cycling outing in the Brandon Hills I had
forgotten that we had the bike on the rack on the roof. Needless to say, it met
the carport when we turned off the street with the result that there were some
residual scrapes and dents on the roof that we never did repair other than to
use the factory-supplied silver paint to touch it up. The other notable
incident with it was that when I started my psychiatry residency. We had driven
it to Winnipeg and parked it in my stall at the apartment I was living in. When
we went back down to use the car again, we noticed that the rear quarter window
was broken (that's always a telltale sign) and my summer jacket from the back
seat was gone. We then realized the stereo, which was one of those you could
insert and remove, was gone. We realized we were in a part of Winnipeg that was
prone to theft so we did not leave the stereo in again after we got it
replaced. As usual, thieves are not always smart: the VW stereo is coded in
such a way that it is useless to anyone who steals it.
Anne
sold the Jetta to the wife of a former pastor when we moved to BC. She was
happy to have it just as it was and I don't think she ever did change the door
colors. I had never owned a VW beetle or a bus which were very popular with my
generation, but this made up for it. A sports car that I had wanted when I was
younger was also a VW, the Karmann Ghia.
By
the summer of 2006, the Medallion was looking like it was going to need more
repairs than what I was prepared to put into it at that time. I had one
accident with it already too. Ansel and I had been going to a family gathering
at Crows Nest Pass when we ran into deer even before we got to Virden, at dusk,
which is typical. The grille and bumper were somewhat displaced and the left
headlight was left dangling. I think the deer was somewhat hamstrung but it
disappeared into the bush. We drove slowly into Virden after trying to tuck the
light back into place and borrowed some electric tape at the Shell there to
hold everything together for the rest of the trip. I was able to get a
secondhand bumper, grill and light to replace everything when I returned. I was
happy enough to replace the bumper though because on a very cold winter day I had
once run the corner of it into a frozen snow bank at Harry's place in Winnipeg
when I was staying there attending a conference. The result had been a large
stellate crack as a reminder of that experience of not making a tight enough
turn into a narrowly-cleared driveway. The important role of electronics in
cars by this time also caused us some grief with this car. On more than one
occasion it stopped dead on the highway or elsewhere. After a number of visits
to the garage and some expenses, we discovered that the problem was a $16
oxygen sensor!
I
went car shopping. Ever since my grandfather's Dodge and our Dodges and
Plymouths as a family growing up, I have been partial to the Mopar brand. I
ended up signing a deal on a white 2005 Dodge Stratus. I got it for $17,000
because it was new but still a year old on the car lot. It had a radio cassette
stereo, cruise control, air-conditioning (we had that first on the Medallion and
once you have that you never want to do without it, just like the cruise
control - how we get spoiled!), power steering and brakes and was a 2.4 L
four-cylinder front wheel drive, just like the Medallion. I was going to pay
cash for it but Anne had a better idea. She was very much my money manager by
this time. We went back to the dealer and put as much of it as we could on our
credit card to get the Airmiles! She also felt I had stretched our budget
enough at that point and so the car did not get immediately licensed and I
continued to drive the Medallion and Jetta while it sat in the driveway.
However, when I came home from work on my 50th birthday, the proverbial pink
flamingo was taped to the rear deck, although it was a higher-quality straw
creation from 10,000 Villages, and the car was licensed. Did I customize this
car? Not too much. Just black pinstriping along the fenders and over the
slightly raised portion of the rear deck to give it that slightly racy look.
We
never had any accidents with the Dodge. It took us on trips from BC,
particularly taking Ansel to his first year of university at UBC, to Montréal,
taking Anika to her first year at McGill, where Ansel was already enrolled by
that time. On that trip our gas tank punctured from a rock in the construction
zone just outside of Thunder Bay so we were held up their somewhat while the
gas tank was repaired. It gave us a chance to become more acquainted with that
town and even attend Sunday morning mass in a nearby largely Italian Catholic
Church.
In
the summer of 2005, we moved to BC. Anika was home for the summer and she, Anne
and I packed up the car headed out on a Friday afternoon. Ansel was busy moving
from Montréal to Toronto, ostensibly to have a better chance of finding a job.
The moving truck had come and picked everything else up and the house was clean
and ready for its new owners, who were incidentally the pastor family whom I
and several others on our church's search committee had located. Some might say
that was a conflict of interest, but we gave him a good deal.
We
were on our 2nd day out, traveling through the heat between Brooks and Calgary
when the car died. There are frequently silver linings to clouds if you see
them. On this occasion it was the fact that we were barely half-an-hour's drive
from my cousin Heidi's farm home at Rosemary. We already had cell phones in
those days. We called her and she came and picked up an Anne and Anika while I
called a tow truck and went with it in the car to Brooks. Heidi picked me up
from there. We ended up having to stay over the weekend. In fact, the car did
not really get repaired until we put some pressure on the manager finally on
Thursday when we returned from BC. We had rented a van to complete the trip in
the meantime, because we had to take possession of our new home. We left Anika
in the apartment to begin to settle in. On our return to Alberta we stayed
overnight in a motel in Brooks where the Dodge was. I went out and purchased a Consumer
Report Car Guide to read while we waited for the car to be repaired.
In
any case, with it looking like the Dodge might be in need of replacement, I was
eyeing the new Nissan Altima and Mazda 6, both of which featured very nice
designs. I was not about to get the top-rated Camry because they were not rated
that high for “driving” and one of our best friends already had one. So, with
Anne's left-brain opinion being taken into account once she read the ratings,
the only other logical, not design-influenced, choice was the 2nd-place Honda
Accord. That was really fine with me because it has always been seen as more of
a driver's car than the Camry in any case. However, that purchase was not made
until we settled into our new home in BC and cleared up a number of financial
situations with respect to the pension fund that had accumulated since I had
begun to work in health and Manitoba. Then we would be ready to buy the car for
cash.
It
was thus not until just before Christmas of 2005 that we ended up at the
Richmond Auto Mall's Richmond Honda dealer. We had taken advantage of the BC Medical
Association's car purchasing benefit to find out what the price should be on a
Honda Accord and put that forward as our cash offering. It was accepted.
What
we came away with after trading off our Dodge for something like $1200 was a
new sapphire blue Honda Accord sedan with a 2.4 L four-cylinder engine for
around $28,000. With respect to color,
we had to wait to get a car from a different dealer, but I was not going to
have one of those gold, silver, gray or black sedans I had discovered were the
choice of the increasingly predominating Chinese segment of Richmond society,
particularly in the area where we lived. My individualism again. I chose the
extra package with sunroof - now that we were in beautiful BC with its
mountains high on every side once we left the Fraser Valley, I wanted to get
the most out of the views, steel ("Mag” type) wheels and leather wrapped
steering wheel, stopping short of heated leather seats for another $3000. If I
had lived without car warmers for most of my career in Manitoba, let alone
remote car starters, which were coming into vogue, I certainly did not need
heated seats in Greater Vancouver with its milder climate. This was the first
car, believe it or not, that we ever had with power windows and doors. We had
always been somewhat leery of those in case we ended up in a situation where we
couldn't get out of the car because we couldn't get them open. We also had our
first CD player along with our radio. As we discovered later though, it was
just a little behind the curve so as not to be an MP3 player. Style-wise, I had
not been crazy about what I consider the hanging taillights of the previous
couple of years of models of Honda Accord but was quite pleased with the large
bright wedge taillights of the 2006 model, particularly with their LED
illumination, which was the up-and-coming thing in automotive lighting.
When
we moved to BC, we chose a place to live from which I could generally walk to
work. As a result, even after 7 1/2 years, by which time the average car has
hundred and 40,000 km on it, I don't even have 100,000 on the Honda. Other than
some small trips down to the US, it has not been outside of BC though. My
highway driving days have sure changed. I find myself flying a lot more.
I
have had no issues with the Honda. Somebody put a dent in my trunk and a hole
in the adjacent light once in my parking lot at work, but I got that fixed. Our
dear son backed up without enough due caution on one point in an indoor parking
lot and took the driver's side mirror off and scraped the door quite badly,
which we again managed to repair. So, we are still driving it and may continue
to do for so for some time yet.
As I
review this "auto"-biographical note, I see that I have owned 6 cars
in 46 years, with the first used Chevy being around for the shortest period of
time - less than 2 years. Three of those cars I drove for 9 years, and this
last one is coming up to its 8th year. I really can't be accused of changing
cars too often. Two of them would have been identified as Japanese, another
being made in Japan, one a hybrid French- American (the Medallion, first sold
by American Motors, then Chrysler) and only 3 being North American. I have
never owned a Ford product. There was the two-year lease to make up for that. Anne's
cars she/we drove for 4 years and 16 years for the Arrow (Japanese/American)
and Jetta (in German) respectively. She obviously breaks the record in our
family with that Jetta.
What
might be next? If there is another car, it will probably be a smaller one,
perhaps a Honda Civic, and quite possibly also a hybrid. I am not sure the
environment will be ready for an entirely electric vehicle for me in my time,
but that would be environmentally a good move to make, I think.
2013 8 14
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