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Loyal Motors
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A couple of days ago I was pulling an all-nighter; trying to memorize
14 chapters of information—which I’ll never use in life—for one of my final
exams the following morning. It was around 4 a.m. when I decided to take a study
break and get something to eat at a local fast food joint that was open 24/7. I
was in pajamas, so I used the drive thru. While I was waiting in line to pull
up to the window I heard a familiar noise traveling across the cold night air,
the sound of an engine being fed fuel through a carburetor. I glanced in my
side mirror and saw the corner fender of what my memory recognized as a '60s
full size Pontiac. After I received my greasy bag of eatable cholesterol, I pulled
into the nearest parking space so I could get out and get a better look at the mystery
Pontiac that was behind me
It turned out to be a tempest blue, 1968 Pontiac
Catalina sedan. It was beautiful and looked like it hadn’t stopped rolling
since LBJ was president. Sun baked paint on its roof, with a hint of surface
rust, a front grille sprinkled with years of pebble dings, headlights shining dimly
giving it the impression of a tired face, a Catalina
emblem on the front fender with a missing A, it was an honest survivor.
At first
glance, I formed a back story of the kind of life it was having: Purple Heart on
the corner license plate; a Vietnam Veteran flag hanging on its rear-view
mirror; an aging old man sitting behind the wheel and wearing an Army cap, with
his wife riding shotgun, with pink rollers in her silver hair.
The story that ran in
my head was that of a young soldier, coming back from Vietnam, and buying his first new car
as he signs on the dotted line at a Pontiac dealership during the year 1968. Bringing
home his first child in that same Pontiac as the years went by. A lifetime of
miles under its hood.
Before the old man left, he fired up the old Catalina, and
as he turned the key, the car didn’t skip a beat. With a sleepy clank and ring,
the tired 400ci engine fired with the equivalent grunt of an old man getting up
from a chair. They rolled out of the parking lot, with the Catalina floating
across the asphalt with grace. It made me forget about my insomnia for the next few
seconds, as I stared at the Pontiac leaving the driveway into the darkness.
It always makes my day whenever I see a
classic or old car riding down the road, without a care in the world on the
driver’s face. It’s even better when the car is a survivor, or has an exhausting
amount of miles on the clock. I’ve heard of a little old lady in Florida
pedaling around her 1962 Mercury Comet since new, and has rolled over 400,000
miles on the original drivetrain. A man who has covered over 900,000 in his
Porsche 356, and a legendary gentleman who pushed his Volvo P1800 all the way
to 3 million miles, while still looking factory new.
Loyal Motors, honest cars
that refuse to give up on their caretaker, because of good maintenance. If the
owner takes care of his/her car, the car will take care of the owner. Cars aren’t
much different to humans when it comes to keeping them alive. They both need
constant refueling, checkups, occasional replacement parts, and be drained of
fluids sometimes, so seeing a car that has survived the life expectancy of
their warranties is a true testament to regularly scheduled oil changes and maintenance.
Sometimes, however, you get cars
that were built just a little bit better than the car before or after it on the
assembly line. Whether that car falls in the hands of someone who doesn’t know
what a dipstick is or someone who keeps the plastic covers on the seats, the
car will keep on rolling until the wheels fall off.
A good friend of mine has a
2001 Toyota Camry, about as vanilla of car as you can get, yet it has clocked
nearly 300,000 miles! The suspension feels like that of a full size sedan from
the 1970s. It drives likes a boxer hearing the bell going off, as it bobs and
weaves around corners. The car refuses to give up on my buddy, even though he
drives like Donald Duck behind the wheel of a rental. He has even admitted to
me that he is trying to break it so he can have an excuse to buy a new car, but
the car won’t die. I’ve driven it, and although the car feels exhausted, the V6
can still mustered up enough grunt to get you into triple digit speeds.
I love cars with loyal engines,
cars that refuse to give up no matter the abuse from the owner or father time.
I can assume many of you have heard or known about a car that has rolled enough
miles to lap the planet once or twice. Doesn’t it just tickle the soft spot in
your heart? Some people believe that age is just a number, apparently some cars
believe that mileage is just a number as well.