Change is good, every decade or so

I bought my first car 39 years ago. In that span of time I've owned four cars. My guess is that one car every decade is below the national average, but I tend to hang onto things, for better or worse. Not that I planned it this way, but as I move into my fifth decade of car ownership, I bought car number five in May. 

I bought my first car, a '67 Mustang the day after I graduated high school. Though the Mustang is a classic car, this one was more of a mutt. Mostly green, but with a red door, out of place mag wheels, and an engine size it didn't start with. But it was my mutt. 

Several years in, I spent a summer with my friend Buzz, taking over his mom's garage and driveway, each of us putting a new engine in our cars (returning the car to the V8 it was born with). Over the years I replaced brakes, clutches, did tune ups and learned all about working on cars. Eventually I got a cheap paint job from Earl Scheib so it was finally one color. I had that car for fifteen years. 

My next car was my favorite (so far), though I only had it for a couple of years. It was a Volkswagen Corrado, which was the sportier successor to the Scirocco (not that this reference helps these days). Man that was a fun car to drive. I started working in construction not long after buying the car, so this kinda-nice car was going to get beat up, and what I really needed was a truck to haul tools and materials. Hated to see it go. 

I bought my one and only new car, a 2000 Dodge Dakota in the fall of 1999. It was more boring and practical, but it was my daily driver for another fifteen year stretch, half of its life after I no longer needed it for construction. It was basically on its last legs when it was replaced. Transmission failing, heater core bypassed because it was leaking, any major repair more expensive than it was worth. I got $200 trade in value for it when I bought my next and most recent car, a 2003 Honda Element.

moving stuff from old to new(er) car

The Element has been another favorite. It is the swiss army knife of vehicles. The suicide doors make it easy to throw people, gear or dogs in the back seat. If you have more to haul, the back seats can be flipped up to the walls, or removed entirely, making it a mini cargo van. Nearly every surface is easy to clean rubber or plastic, a car you can take anywhere and not worry about ruining it. The perfect dog, camping, bike rack kind of vehicle.

On that note, I haven't ever purchased a really "nice" car, a status or luxury car. All but the truck have been years or decades old when I got them, and generally missing the technology of the times. When people would talk about the bells, whistles and screens in their cars, I would often say, "My car has power windows" in my best Ralph Wigum voice. 

While shopping for cars, this picture came up in my feed. Random opinion of a random guy, but all of my cars have been on the "Has no Money" side, and on both the "Fun to be Around" and "Insufferable" quadrants. 

The new car will keep to that pattern.

The Element was getting tired. It has about 248,000 miles on it, and it is more than twenty years old. The engine has always been underpowered, but recently it has become so gutless as to be a roadblock to other cars as it struggled to get up over the mountain passes. I love everything about the Element, except it feeling like the engine is powered by a couple of hamsters running on a treadmill. 

I have been looking at the car to replace it for two to three years now. I hesitated to buy a new car first because the pandemic pushed used car prices through the roof. Then last year, all my money went to medical bills. The Element struggling to get over the hills on the way back from eastern Washington earlier this month finally made me take the plunge. I wanted to choose when to replace it, and not have to scramble if it finally broke down. 

Even though having a fancy or status car is not important to me, each time I bought a car, I was looking for a specific car, so cars are definitely important to me on some level. I did not go to a dealership, Autotrader or Craigslist looking for a sedan, hatchback, SUV, etc. I went looking for a specific model, if not a specific year. I wanted a Mustang, and I wanted the 1967 version. I wanted this sort of unknown Volkswagen (I always had to explain what the Corrado was). I wanted the Element, which was this unique car that I found had a bit of a cult following. Even the truck, which was the most generic of all, I wanted a Dakota, and I wanted a stick shift. 

Since I narrow my search before I even start, cars can be hard to find. My last two vehicles I had to go to Oregon, because I could not find anything local. Even though Dakotas were everywhere, I had to go to Oregon to get a stick shift, and Element owners hang onto their cars forever so I had to broaden my search area to find one in decent shape for sale.  

The new car will keep to that car from Oregon pattern. 

So here she is, a 2021 Subaru Crosstrek Sport.

Crosstreks have had some nice colors over the years, but 90% of the used ones for sale were either white or black, neither of which I was too excited about. The one I ended up with appears to be a love it or hate it color, but I am a fan, and after driving an orange car for the last nine years, I guess I am a fan of distinctive colors. 

Buying the car in Oregon was a bit of a hassle, and it was my own version of planes, trains and automobiles to pick it up a week and a half later, but now that I have it, I am pretty happy with it. Still learning what all these buttons and screens do, but I have lots of time to learn. If the pattern holds, it should be around for another decade.

And the Element is still around, but more on that later.