Automobiles: What Do You Drive?

My first automobile, and only one to date, is a 1988 Ford Mustang convertible. It has proven to provide economical daily transportation and is fun to drive. Having the small 2.3-liter engine, it doesn\'t quite have as much muscle as one might expect but it is quite economical. Who needs all that horsepower for their daily commute anyway?

I bought the car at the end of my junior year in college. It was nice to not have to rely on my friends for rides when I needed to go somewhere. As it turned out, my friends liked my car as well. In fact, one of my friends, Danamarie, even felt that it should have a name and proceeded to name it "Cowboy" despite minor protests from me.

Despite all the good days, "Cowboy" has led me on quite a few misadventures as well. "Cowboy" was the subject of vandalism in the mall parking lot. I was about ready to leave when I discovered that the convertible top had been slashed. I kept the hole taped up as best I could until spring break when my mom, a professional seamstress, helped me sew and patch it up. If nothing else, the patchwork gives the car a little extra character.

The next big event resulted in the replacement of the engine. In the fall of 1999, the engine was making unnatural sounds and progressively getting worse. Finally, my dad and I took it around to the local garages and asked their opinion of the noises. One optimistic mechanic said it would be lucky to hold together for the rest of the week. So we quickly located a replacement engine and made an appointment to have the engine changed that coming weekend. Meanwhile, I continued to drive the car to work. By Thursday of the week, I was calling home for a tow truck. Pieces had flown apart inside the engine, leaving the car nearly powerless. When my dad arrived with his cousin and rollback, my dad insisted that I could have made it further home. So he got in a drove it for about a mile while we followed in the rollback. By the time my dad gave up, the rods had poked several holes through the engine block and spewed oil and antifreeze everywhere. So, we hauled the car to the garage a little earlier than expected. The engine compartment was such a mess that even the mechanic had to clean it out before he would work on it. All hopes of keeping the old engine block as a possible rebuild candidate was shattered, but we suspect it wasn\'t the original engine anyway so it doesn\'t really matter.

Sporting a "like new" engine and having been repainted in 2000, "Cowboy" should be good for another 100,000 miles or so. Maybe next time, I'll tell you some of the good things that happened to "Cowboy". I hope you enjoy your car as much as I enjoy mine!