The Red Car

Well I have to admit, I'm not sad to see the Red Car go.  It has been a great little trooper these past 9 years, and it has served us well, but it is time.

The Red Car, is a 1993 Sundance.  My parents bought it new and I purchased it off my mom in 2001 when Marlin went to spend his first summer in Manitoba and we were both working out in the boonies and both needed a vehicle.  We started calling it the Red Car because our other car was Green.  Clever, no?  :)

Since then this car has barely needed any mechanical work.  In fact, the damn thing won't die.  But while the engine and everything else under the hood is great, the rest of it is falling apart at the seams.  And yes we could get any of these things fixed, but the bill would be WAY more than the value of the car.

The air conditioning doesn't work.  It hasn't for years.  This wouldn't be a huge problem except the windows are manual.  You try running errands in the hot summer where every 2 minutes you are winding or unwinding windows so you don't die of heat stroke.  I seriously consider just leaving everything wide open - it isn't like anyone is going to steal the damn thing.

The hydraulics on the back hatch don't work.  It isn't too heavy to lift, but almost impossible to get anything out of the back requiring two hands as the hatch slams shut on you.  So I tend to use my head to keep it up while I rummage in the back.  You have no idea how heavy those things are until you use your head to support it.  I think this is one of my biggest pet peeves about the car.

The front windshield (and the rest of the car as well) went through some weird massive dust storm one day here in Lethbridge and it is now so pockmarked by tiny grains of sands, it is impossible to see through it when the sun hits it the right way.

The front seat seems to be on a bit of an angle... to the side.  The divider between the seats has a lid that has a busted latch (from a break in years earlier where the thieves were too stupid to see the button on the side that opens it) so it refuses to stay closed unless you lean your elbow on it.  The windshield wiper fluid spray nozzles have McGuiver-like bits around it so that it shoots onto the windshield and not 6 feet straight up.  The weather stripping along the hatch is starting to fall off.  I could keep going but I won't.

Like I said, it doesn't have anything major wrong and it hasn't cost us a lot of money over the years but we are ready for something new.

Bye Red Car! Thanks for being so reliable all these years!