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Why I Love My Car

In 2004 I took a long deserved sabbatical, I basically took two full months off of work and just worked on Guitars, projects, went to Disneyland and basically had a ball. At the end of that time I achieved my personal dream, I purchased a 2003 BMW 330i. The car was a fleet car and had 4k miles on it, was practically brand new. In fact the engine bay was spotless, I drove it around the block once hard and bought it on the spot.

I love that car, every now and then I get people who don’t understand what it cost me to buy it, and they always assume we are rich. Far from that, but I saved for a long time and used some of my retirement to fulfill that dream. I’ve driven it to 4 states, all over the western side of the country and now after 6 years it’s starting to finally show it’s age. And it’s got some problems:

While parking Michelle pulled part of the bumper loose, it happens on cars that are low to the ground.
Last year a woman glanced off the back bumper in traffic, it’s not very visible but it needs to be fixed
The sunroof came off it’s tracks and needs to be fixed
The GPS antenna died for some reason, sometimes it works, most times it can’t get signal
Because of it’s age some of the engine parts need to be replaced (belts, pulley’s etc)
A rock chipped the window and before I could get it fixed, the below freezing temperatures made sure it turned into a crack (this one is fixable through insurance)

For a time I was looking at replacing the it with something newer, maybe a Honda Accord, Mercedes 3 Class, but that would mean more car payments and this one is just about paid for. I was very frustrated by all the things that broke and how much it was going to cost to fix them.

Last night I hit a high point of frustration, work, family, bills, everything came to a boil. It was stormy outside which matched my mood, so I dumped my cell on the counter and went out for a drive. We live in the country and there are a lot of good quiet roads to just drive and think on, it’s good therapy at times.

About halfway out, I hit a deserted section of road with fields on both sides and just hammered the pedal. The car quickly ramped up to 100mph (hope no cops are reading this), and suddenly I realized that this isn’t a car, it’s a low slung rocket ship that handles like it’s on rails. I crested a ridge and brought it back down to a sane speed and at each stop rocketed out to see what the car felt like, for most of it’s life I’ve drive the car in a commuting mode, a few times I’ve done mountain roads (with a huge smile on my face) but it’s mostly been point a to point b.

I discovered last night that I really love my car, a shallow statement I know. But I can’t help it, I bought the car because I love the precision and practicality of the car and the fact that it can rocket when needed too. It seems that my love affair is not over, everything is fixable and now I can imagine selling it. Last night not only renewed my love for the car, but lightened my mood considerably, at least *something* in my life performs as expected (or better)