Car Shopping

When I was a teenage driver, my dad gave me the "privilege" of driving a '72 International Travellall. It was the biggest vehicle on the road besides a semi-truck. Ours was a faded green color. It scared me to drive it because I always felt like there could be people living in the far back. It was also unpredictable. If my dad was around, it ran flawlessly. If my sister or I were driving it, we were likely to be stranded somewhere. In fact, my 16 year old sister was on her way home from a volleyball game and the car died outside a bar one night. The car was way too heavy for her to move. It was also the in the days before cell phones. She had to go into the bar and ask someone to help her get the car out of the road. The men were very nice, but talk about unsafe!!! Then she went back in the bar to call my dad to come and get her.
So Christopher needed a car. We wanted him to have some say in what he drove. At first, he said anything was fine because that is the kind of kid he is. Then when we pushed him a bit, he did have some definite ideas. He wanted white. All of our cars are white. There is something about cleanliness and heat absorbsion. He wanted four doors. I thought that was kind of funny. But he wants Zach and his date to be comfortable in the back seat. I told him as long as HE was comfortable who cares about the back seat people. Christopher does, because that is just the kind of kid he is. He wanted an automatic, with a/c, and cruise control. We gave him a budget. And we looked and we looked. We looked at 10 cars. He kept saying he wasn't "feeling it". Finally, we went up to look at a car on Bogus Basin road. These nice people live on the hill right behind Simplot's hill. Mr. and Mrs G. were in their 60's and had had the car for 10 years. He gave us a printout of everything he had purchased for the car, from every gallon of gas with gas mileage to the $1.59 he spent on new fuses in 1999. The car was perfect. Every latch works, every button and lever works. Christopher got a huge smile on his face and declared that he was "feeling it". I even teased him that it was a bit grannyish. Mrs. G drove the car around the block one last time and came back with tears in her eyes. As we were leaving, Mr. G brought out 4 new snow tires in the original bags from Les Schwab. So this is it. A '95 well loved, well cared for Ford Taurus LX. It was even well below budget.