Yesterday I washed my car! I’ve had my car a little over 3 years and I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never hand washed her. I’ve taken her through the automatic car wash (admittedly it’s been a while) but never hand washed her. Why, you ask? Well, I have a height problem. A lack of height! I can’t reach the roof properly, nor the middle of the front and back windscreen. I could go inside the house and down into the basement and get my step-up stool and drag it upstairs and use it to clean the hard to reach places, but I really can’t be bothered.
I don’t have a strong feeling of love for this car. I’ve always “bonded” with my previous cars. They’ve all had names and I’ve pampered them and loved them. This one just never tugged on those heart strings. I always describe it as a “man’s car”. I’m 5’3” (after a chiropractic adjustment) and everything is in the wrong place for a shortish woman. I’ve adjusted the seat forward, the height of the seat, the height of the steering wheel, the mirrors, the cup holders etc., but it’s still not right. There are big patches of plastic right in my area of vision when I’m turning a corner and those darn head rests are immovable. After 3 years I still haven’t figured out how to change the time on the clock, so it’s permanently stuck on Standard Time. I get caught out on average, about 3 times during Daylight Savings Time, but for the most part I can figure out the time. Now I’m too afraid to ask someone to correct it for me in case I can’t get it back to Standard Time again, so I leave it alone.
It’s a good car, powerful, manual transmission, silver, but it feels too big for me to be truly comfortable, but it recently cost me a fortune to repair, one week after buying 4 new tyres for her. While at the mechanic, I was complaining about, well, everything to do with cars, and mentioned that I wanted to trade her in. The mechanic looked at me, lowered his voice and said “that is actually a very good idea”, so when your mechanic agrees with you, you should pay attention! We are determined to trade her in while we can still get some kind of money for her but I’m in a quandary because of the money I spent on her. I should get SOME benefit from that, right? At the time of purchasing her we managed to drive my old car to the dealer to look at cars and she died right in the dealer’s parking lot, so it was a sign that we had to purchase a car that day. They didn’t have too much in our price range, so we bought quickly and I was so excited to find a car with a manual transmission!
My goal is to own a small, economical car – preferably a hatchback and a manual, and one that I can comfortably reach all the necessary spots and not have my vision hindered by plastic globs of eye candy. Who knows, maybe I’ll hand wash her too!