You know, it occurs to me that I haven't shared photos of all of my cars. I was looking through my posts about Ginger (you'll see why when I tell you about my new ride) and I never posted a photo of her. That got me reminiscing and... well, before I get on to my new car, let's review my 'new' cars since I started posting here.
Through these two posts you know about the cars I had before I became a nurse. I don't have many photos of these though, and the first few don't even have names.
My grey 1979 Chevy Monza. It was a dream car but only because it was my first car. It was my older brother's car before he went into the Navy and he'd put a brand new $500 paint job on a car worth $500. I'm surprised in that first post that I didn't tell the tale of me learning how to (and failing to) fish tale. The short version, I wanted to try it so I started driving down the street faster and faster while turning the car to the right and then the left. And for a few turns, I had it. I was sliding down the road like a moto cross racer. But I kept going faster and sliding more and did I mention this was on a wet muddy dirt road? No? Well it was. Yeah, I started spinning completely around. I hit a mailbox on the drivers side of the road, with my passenger door, and ended up facing in the right direction next to this guys house. I was freaked out and he looked over his porch railing at me and I just started the car, popped the clutch and ran through his (very wet) lawn leaving rooster tails of grass and dirt. Needless to say my dad made me build him a new mailbox and clean up his lawn, as well as getting a replacement door for my Monza. Ahh good times.
Next, after hitting that poor deer, I got the 1983 Buick Skylark. The best thing about this was the fact that it came with a 30 day warranty from the car lot and the transmission died on day 29. They were so pissed! The engine died a few years later, probably from being over driven by a stupid teenager.
Another Monza came next. The police sold me a drug dealers white 1980 Chevy Monza. Of course it had the nitrous system removed making it run like absolute shit and it had been spray painted black. But that was fine by me as a 17 year old kid. It got me from point A to point B and when the paint started to peel... well, I could afford a can of paint, right? I believe I ended up selling it back to the drug dealer as I'm fairly sure I saw it again and it was running fine, paint peeling off of it as it drove by at 90 miles per hour.
Anyway, next came my first 'reasonable' car. A 1986 (I think it was 1986?) Pontiac 6000. It was two tone blue, but still plane as jane ever was. In modern terms, she was the equivalent of my Ford Edge. Fine, but I only barely liked her. I didn't love her. When her cruise died and got stuck in accelerate mode, trying to kill me, I got rid of it.
That's when I dipped into my eye lawsuit money and bought what was my nicest and 'newest' car for a long long time. My red 1990 Ford Escort. This was in 1994 making her only 4 years old. She ran fine, she had air conditioning, cruise control, and a stereo with speakers that actually worked all the time and at most volumes! She was amazing. I mean, yeah... she was a Ford Escort, but she was still amazing to me. She got me to and from college at the local community college, up to and back from Ferris State University, and even to and from the other community college where I went to Photo school. I had her for like seven or eight years before she started to die and die and die.
I have photos of her somewhere, but they aren't accessible to me right now. What I DO have is one of my digital photo projects for school where I combined my Escort with a friends convertible Labaron. So in the most technical sense, that IS a photo of my Escort. Not bad considering this was made in 1996!
When I finally got her fixed well enough to sell and buy a better car I borrowed money from Dad and bought another one of my brother's cars. His 1990 Beretta GTZ. This was the first car that had a name. Or rather, a title. I didn't give this the title, but she earned it. She was the Black Shadow of Death. Not that she really killed, but she was a killer. Fast. Very fast. I could scare my friends with her. I drove the doors off of her and took her from a relatively nice car to a piece of shit. After losing the transmission and paying to get it fixed, the engine died. To replace it with a 'decent' used engine would cost $3000. She was maybe worth $1000 if she was in good condition otherwise, and she wasn't in good condition otherwise. I sold her to a junk yard for $100 instead.
I went without a car for awhile and then finally did another search. I remember seeing a lot of cars that just didn't make sense. I couldn't afford a reliable car and a good looking car at the same time. That was until I came across the 1983 Chevy Impala. The ad said they'd just done a bunch of work on her, put new tires on her, and even had her painted within the last two years. She was gorgeous. I mean, as gorgeous as a 1983 Impala can be! Really beautiful grey paint. She had a small tired V6 that could barely get to 50 on the highway, but that suited me fine after basically wrecking the Black Shadow of Death by boy racing her. She was a big plundering blundering blob of a car, so naturally her name was Bellulah. Bellulah died a terrible death by being rear ended and sandwiched between a big pickup behind her (driven by a drunk driver) and a semi truck car hauler in front of her. Very sadly, I never took beauty shots of her. The only photos of I have of her are the ones after she was totaled, while she sat in the junk yard.
So what did I replace this whale of a car with? Another whale of a car of course. a 1990 Lincoln Town Car. I kind of learned my lesson on this beast. First lesson is that I like the good things in life. Yes, the air suspension was fabulous. Yes, she was nice looking. Yes, she was smooth. Yes, her leather was fine and her (fake) wood paneling was classy. She was still a big plundering beast so naturally her name was Belinda. The other lesson I learned was that luxury cars come with other luxury prices. Everything that broke on Belinda was at least twice as expensive to fix as it would be on any other car. Seriously, she was EXPENSIVE. She had a digital dashboard (that eventually broke) she had a nice stereo (that eventually broke), she had a power radio antennae (that eventually broke) and a faux leather half top (that yes, broke). It was kind of funny though to see that she was in fact a 'Congressional Town Sedan (by E&G)'. I imagine they were some extra outfitter that did the topper.
Next up was probably my best car until I became a nurse. She was better than the Escort, though not as new. Better equipped than the Lincoln, thought not as luxurious. Faster than the Black Shadow of Death, though not as sporty. After having engine troubles after engine troubles after engine troubles, my only criteria was a reliable engine. I'd learned that the 3.8 liter V6 engine from GM that was found in a lot of their cars and was called the 3800, was ROCK solid. I was lucky to find it in a gold 1999 Chevy Lumina LTZ. She was a great car for a long time. She served me for... seven years? She was young and spunky and fun so her name was Lita. It kind of makes me wonder why I never took beauty shots of her. I mean, I had digital cameras during this time, was working as a photographer at this time, and had camera phones at this time. Yet the only photos I have of Lita are when she's hurt.
Those are all before I was a nurse. So you've been with me for the next cars. I'll be short on them.
In 2013, just months after getting my first nursing job I got Fiona, my 2012 Yellow Blaze Ford Focus Titanium Hatchback. By far the newest car I'd had up to that point at basically one year old. She was loaded with tech that hadn't even been thought of when I Lita was built. She was fun and to this day I still love that Yellow Blaze color. Her biggest problem was that she was a Focus. She was small.
A couple years later, I talked myself into looking at a new car. I'd gotten several good raises, was making more money, and could afford a bigger car. She was my first hybrid, my first car with a heated steering wheel, my first car with a moon roof, my first car with built in navigation, my first car with cooled seats. She was a fancy rocket ship car from the future and got almost as good of gas milage as Fiona. You can read up on my purchase of Ginger here. I don't know why I never shared photos of her here, but here are some photos I got of her after I had her detailed.
A couple years later in 2017 I was ready for a new car. I was working in my home town with a short drive, I'd had the window replaced in Ginger and they screwed up the camera so half of her neat features didn't work and they kept delaying the parts, and I really wanted that last big features... Adaptive Cruise Control. There really wasn't a lot of options for cars as I didn't like most of the new cars on the road and I didn't have any problem with Ginger. I did, however, have a problem with the Hybrid. It was just a little too weak for a car her size. It was great at the gas pump, terrible at busy intersections. So I got a 2017 Ford Fusion Platinum that was fully loaded and in a glorious White Platinum Metallic Tri-Coat paint. Her name was Isabella. She was the fanciest car I had ever had. Maybe Belinda was more luxurious when she was new, but Isabella WAS new and that made her better. Oh, and she was my first Lease ever (and probably my last lease ever!). She was also my first all wheel drive car, and I fell in love with that as a feature. You can read up on her purchase here.
Now, while working in my home town, the lease was fine. I could drive to Texas or wherever I wanted and I still stayed under the miles per year. But then I got the nurse manager job and started my hour long commute again And boy did the miles rack up. So, as was becoming habit, two years later in 2019 I started looking for another car. My initial thought was to get a 2019 Ford Edge ST. It came in a fairly stylish blue, had like 300 horse power, and some better driver aids. It was reasonable in price. I'd lose money AGAIN on Isabella as her value was lower than what I still owed, and I'd get no deals on getting out of the lease early. But if I stayed in the lease, I'd lose huge when the miles were added up.
The dealer that had the Edge ST I wanted also had a LOT of Mustangs. I had really REALLY wanted a 2018 Mustang before, but thought it was a little childish at this point of my life. BUT, why not indulge. I looked over one they had, as it was spec'd in a way you don't often see Mustangs. It was the GT Premium with all the tech bells and whistles and none of the extra performance bells and whistles. In other words, perfect for me. Well, test driving the Edge was a disaster. The seat bolsters were terrible on my thighs. There would be no way I could drive it. And when I test drove the Mustang, I almost drove her off the road, scaring the shit out of me.
B and I left the dealership, thought about it, talked about it, and I realized that getting a 400+ horsepower muscle car sports car at this point in my life was about the only time I could do it. Hell, it might be too late as it was so low to the ground that getting in and out wasn't the easiest of things. And it WAS the prefect spec for me. So, I bought a brand new 2019 velocity blue Mustang GT. You can read about the stupid sales approach they took
here. Oh, and her name, Nina, was perfect as she sung like an angel.
Nina was by far the most powerful car I ever had. But she just wasn't ever going to be a good daily driver. She had the adaptive cruise that I loved so much, but it would cut out once it got down to like 15 mph, instead of taking you to a full stop. She brought a lot of attention, and not only when you wanted to get the attention. She hurt your back in many ways, from getting in and getting out, to her stiff suspension, to her big wheels and thin tires crashing over cracks and pot holes. She wasn't subtle at all.
So naturally, two years later in 2021, I started looking for the exact opposite of Nina. I wanted a cushy ride. If you remember though, other things were happening in 2021. COVID was decimating the car industry and car prices. I found out that my perfect car would be a brand new 2021 Ford Edge Titanium. Loaded, of course. But no one had one on the their lot. So I went into my local dealership and while they looked over Nina for a trade in value, I went through the ordering process of getting a Ford Edge built exactly the way I wanted. They screwed both the salesman and me by lowballing Nina's value. Again though, it was COVID time and they didn't want Nina as it wasn't their type of car to sell. So that nixed that deal.
On a whim, I did a Kelly Blue Book cash offer and got an offer of more money. They put me in touch with a dealer that had a SWEET 2019 Lincoln Nautilus. Sure, it was going back to a used car but it only had 8000 or so miles, was certified, I could get a long warranty on it, and it was absolutely loaded. After a bad dealership
experience, I walked away with my 2019 rhapsody blue Lincoln Nautilus Reserve with all the options except for the 24 way seats. She was classy and her name was Tiffany.
I honestly thought Tiffany would be my forever car. I had no reason to search for another car. Besides Nina, she was the most powerful car I'd ever had. She was incredibly useful as an SUV. She was pretty. Her luxury was undeniable and her options were unmatched by any car that was anywhere near my price range. The only feature that I could have asked for, but was only on a small handful of cars at this point, was self driving of some sort.
If you keep up at all here, you know about the milk saga. I won't re-hash it, but at the lowest point of my migraines, I totaled Tiffany and the insurance company paid me nothing. I felt I needed a car. Or closer to the point, NOT having a car would be a further blow and I wasn't sure I could take that. I tried to get the best car I could afford with what I had. I spec'd it as close to Tiffany as possible, but it was a Ford Edge. It had the safety features and drivability so it could get me to and from a job if I got well enough, but I knew before even sitting in it that I'd want to replace it as soon as I was working again.
It's certainly a first world problem, but I hated the car. She was perfect and there wasn't a better option out there and she was way better than NOT getting a car... but seeing her was a reminder that I wasn't working and was unable to work and couldn't get what I wanted. So it was a poke where I didn't need it. Regardless, my black 2021 Ford Edge SEL was fine. Fine. You can read about my journey to get
Layla here.
It's funny, I was going to tell you about my new car. The replacement of Layla. But at this point, this post is long enough to sit on its own. So, lets just call this a review. And since it's after 11 at night, I'm going to head to bed and I'll write about my new car tomorrow.
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