Transportation

So, I'm not going to go through the whole "this is the first post" introduction thing because....I dont even know if anyone is going to read this, nor does anyone really care...its fairly obvious its the first post.

So....D and I were talking about cars...now I have a history of...wanting a nice car...this hasnt quite worked out so well. For the most part at least. While I currently aspire to own a Lexus IS 300 (hopefully within the next few months that will happen), and developed a great love for a certain Mercedes E63, those were not quite the cars Ive been driving in the past few years (apart from the times I was "allowed/made" to drive the E63). The first car I had access to was 2005 Ford Explorer. Not bad right? Could be a lot worse! I do agree. Apart from the fact that the gauge was broken and it had a sneaky habit of pretending to have gas in it when it didnt, and also of pretending it didnt have gas when it did. Add to that that this was actually my mothers car...apart from when it was dirty or needed repairs...then it was "mine". This brought on by the fact that I used it more than she did. Then there was my brothers Hyundai. I dont even remember what model it was but it was a nightmare. That car had so many issues that when the engine finally blew and we were told it would cost more to repair it than it was worth..it was sold (can you believe that? the creator of craigslist is a GENIUS!). Then came the next great experience.....as he was on a budget (since this would be his 3rd car at the tender age of 19), the next car was a Regency Oldsmobile....I could go on about how the wheel-lock was broken and we had exciting experiences like having to leave the car in a parking lot and taking a cab home because we couldnt get it started, or having the wrong spare wheel for it and driving with 3 "normal" wheels and one TINY one all the way from MD to Canada.
Then I moved away from the states and here....after switching over my license, rented a Nissan Tiida.....which was ok....until I noticed that theyre like eggshells. I cant even count the amounts of bumps and scratches that car had, just from parking it somewhere and having other people bump into it. Following that was another Tiida, aaannnnnd another one. Which proceeded to lose parts after a while, had to have the backlights exchanged twice within a year and had to have more oil changes than I ever knew a car could need. If i thought that was challenging, it wasnt as bad as the Toyota Yaris I rented a few weeks ago. No CD player...ok I can live with that...but did it really have to sound as if it was dying whenever I went over 120 kmh?

Now lots of people here take taxis. Because theyre cheap. We have old taxis and new taxis. The old ones are the yellow cabs. Now these are by no means comparable to yellow taxis in the states. The yellow taxis here are generally driven by (and im not being offensive, anyone who has ever lived here has had the same experience) people who.....dont shower? in other words they smell...really bad. Then they refuse to switch on the AC even when we're sporting nearly 50 degrees C in the summer. And when they DO switch it on, they refuse to open the window so while youre then stuck in a "cool" car, its also a fairly stinky one. In addition to that, they are notorious for not driving very well. And when I say not driving very well....I mean you have to ask yourself if they were giving their permits along with their jobs without ever having seen a car before in their life.

Why am I talking about all the other cars and now taxis? Because if I thought the Explorer, the Hyundai, the Oldsmobile, the Tiidas or the Yaris were bad...nothing prepared me for my latest rental addition....


Yes thats right......I now drive the same model as the yellow taxis. Imagine this just in white, and thats what I can currently be seen around town with. And nothing the rental agency can tell me will convince me that they didnt just take one of the cabs and paint it white....the cigarette burns in the seats, the malfunctioning radio, the front bumper that seems to want to fly off when the car is driven, as well as the smell which I just cant seem to get rid of...all speak against them, and for what I believe this car used to be used for.

So moral of the story....while I may dream of the IS300 and reminisce about the E63...I shouldnt complain about the cars Ive driven in the past few years.....because they were still better than feeling like I should be picking up people from the taxi stand.

On a more positive note.....at least I have transportation..yay!!!! I'm serious, I might complain, I might just have made fun of it, but I'm sure within the next week or so I'll learn to find some odd thing about it that I like, and I already do appreciate it. And I'm glad I have it. Former Yellow Cab or not!