My car, a Toyota Corolla station wagon, will be twenty years old next year. Its burns oil. The paint, especially on the roof, is a variety of shades of decaying paint job. The stereo only has a tape deck, and it’s starting to eat tapes.
I’ve owned this car for almost ten years. It still gets 33 mpg on the freeway, and it really hasn’t required that much maintenance. There was the bad starter issue last fall, but that was as much or more a problem with the mechanic than with the car. It’s been a very reliable car.
This was never more evident than this last summer when I took a job in another city 340 miles away. Suddenly my poor car that seldom had to drive more than 20 miles in a day was driving 50 miles a day and 700 miles on weekends. I did this for a month and a half before we finally moved, and my little car never gave me any trouble.
I realize that my poor car is getting old. It needs more oil well before its regular oil change. It’s probably not going to stay reliable much longer. But I really appreciate it having been so good for so long. No other car I’ve had has lasted this long. Considering what we paid for it and how little maintenance we’ve had to do on it, it’s been one of the best investments we ever made.
It deserves a pleasant retirement when the time comes. I’ll have to see what I can arrange.