VW

I won't say that I drive old cars. I don't have to: everyone who knows me knows that. But some are quirky in a way which is actually kind of cool.

For awhile back in 2005 or so I had an old Volkwagen, not a beetle, but a boxy brown car which was sort of a compact type. A Golf, in fact. That's what it was. A Volkswagen Golf. A 1987 Volkswagen Golf.

It ran very well and the gas mileage was outstanding. But coolest of all was that it had stamped into the wheel well under the hood, "Made in West Germany". I was driving a car in 2005 made in a country that no longer existed.

I take pride in things like that.

 

Modern conveniences

As regular readers know, and irregular readers will know in a minute, I bought a new old car recently. I've been liking it too; it was certainly a good move on my part.

And get this: it has a feature where you can cool down the interior as you drive! Yes it does! I believe that the scientists call it 'air' conditioning. You push a button and nice cool air comes out of the slots where heat comes from in the winter (when you push a different button of course).

I am duly impressed. I drove all around northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio this past Thursday, and while it was hot and muggy outside I was perfectly comfortable driving. Indeed I could not wait to get back in my van after stops simply to be comfortable while all the walkers moved about in hot sweat. I even saw a couple cars go by with their windows open, clearly lacking this modern marvel, this 'air' conditioning, and I truly felt bad for them.

I should have bought a twelve year old van a lot sooner than I did.

Don't know, don't care

A car, me old Grandpa Joe always said, is good for one thing and one thing only: to get you from point A to point B. That's all it's good for; there ain't no style points.

To be sure, as those of you who knew him will attest, he took the idea to an extreme. He drove vehicles which he probably should have not. Yet I think his basic idea is well and true. It taught me, rightly, I will assert, not to care too much for what I drive.

Consequently I tend to have cars with quirks. Take my current van, for example. If you hit the gas too hard when you pull away from the curb or a traffic light, it rumbles like hell before smoothing out and going on. But when I accelerate easily, it does just fine. Why? Don't know, don't care. It gets me from A to B and that's it's job.

The door ajar and check engine lights stay on constantly. Why? Don't know, don't care. The old girl starts every time and that's all I need her to do.

Sometimes when I roll the driver's window down it won't roll back up. But when I restart the engine it rolls back up. Why? Don't know, don't care. It rolls back up. That's good enough.

Joe's right. It's just a car. And it does what I need it to does. That's good enough for me. If it ain't good enough for you, I can live with that.