AUTHOR: Marty, a.k.a. canape TITLE: Love me, love my Volvo DATE: 9/09/2007 06:41:00 PM ----- BODY:
I have an old Volvo that I love. A 1992 940 Turbo. Silver. Paid for in full of course. It is the car that I think is "me."

For an old car, it has lots of perks. A sunroof. Heated leather seats. A 10 disk CD player. Air conditioning (hooray, and only 110,000 miles. I love my car.

There is the issue of gear though. I have to carry around an 88 key digital piano with me quite frequently. In order to get this in the Volvo, I would have to put it in the backseat without putting it in a case. The window on the opposite side would have to be rolled down, the keyboard lifted onto the edge of the door, the opposite door closed, and then the window rolled up again.

I thought that worked fine.

Guy totally disagreed.

Amidst the protests, Guy bought me a bigger car. Granted, after having it for several months now, I would agree that we did in fact need it, and I do love the new car. We have been able to go to my gigs comfortably with all my gear, the two of us, and even Lovely and Papa along for the ride. It has been wonderful.

Now that Guy has a bit of a commute, he has decided that he should drive the Volvo to work and not put miles on his tiny tiny convertible. Plus, he won't die if someone hits him on the ever insane stretch of I-40 he has to drive.

We were taking the neglected Volvo out for a test drive before he started using it. I was excited it was up and running again and excited that he actually wanted to drive it. My car. He liked something of mine. It felt good to be useful.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten about its little quirks. Like how only I seem to be able to turn the key in the ignition. It works, it's just a little tricky. Then there is the "chug chug" noise it makes when the Turbo doesn't kick in and you are accelerating.

My favorite though is the speedometer.

I had completely forgotten that the speedometer totally freaks out all on its own. In the Volvo, you can go from 0 to 30 in a split second, and then back down to 0 again even though you are still moving forward. On the highway, it safely rounds up to 80 so that you can feel like you are flying even though you are probably only going about 50.

And if you talk badly about it, the needle simply twitches between 30 and 80, like it has Turrets.

Now Guy is not nearly as excited about driving the Volvo as I had hoped he would be.

What I see as *ahem* character, he somehow sees as things that are broken.

I'm going to have to work on him. Or fix the Volvo. One of the two.

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----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Stimey DATE:Sunday, September 9, 2007 at 7:07:00 PM EDT I have some really nice memories of a Chevy Citation I drove in high school and a no-AC Nissan Sentra I drove cross-country in the hot, hot summer of 1998.

But the best weird car feature in my experience was the push-button transmission on a high school friend's Dart.

Awesome. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Mamma DATE:Sunday, September 9, 2007 at 8:16:00 PM EDT I love character!! Come on Guy, you know you love it too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous slouchy DATE:Sunday, September 9, 2007 at 8:36:00 PM EDT Heh. He'll learn. I think they call it trial by fire. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Becki DATE:Sunday, September 9, 2007 at 10:38:00 PM EDT Work on him - the car is happy as it is, right? hehehe ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Fancy Pants DATE:Sunday, September 9, 2007 at 11:21:00 PM EDT She also forgot to mention the sudden pulling to the left for no reason and the smell that comes out of the vents. I love my Shamoopie, her car is another story. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous The Farm House Kids DATE:Sunday, September 9, 2007 at 11:44:00 PM EDT It's very very obvious that your car loves you and only you ... ha~

My first car back in 1973 was a 'Bug'. I loved it, it didn't love me!

Tanya ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous TinaGirl DATE:Monday, September 10, 2007 at 1:04:00 AM EDT I think that must have something to do with having a great marraige. My hubby thinks everything is wrong with my sweet "Maggie" yet she works perfectly fine for me. They need something to gripe about since their wives are perfect I guess. LOL ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Liz DATE:Monday, September 10, 2007 at 9:40:00 AM EDT So, we've spent the entire week trolling Craig's list for a used Volvo. We want to convert it from fuel to vegetable oil (OK, please pick self up off of floor and stop laughing).
So, if Guy talks you out of your Volvo, you know who to call.

But seriously: I had an old Subaru that I loved mightily. That old car died on the side of College Street, in the snow, in a metered parking space at 287,000 miles. [and my mother said, "well, if you had taken better care of it..." HELLO--287k is pretty good, no?]. I loved the blue smoke it kicked out when going up a hill, the bubbling noise it made when the engine turned over. All the quirks and qualities that made it uniquely mine.

I could probably tell you a story for nearly every mile on that old bag of metal. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Mrs. Chicken DATE:Monday, September 10, 2007 at 11:37:00 AM EDT I think I actually saw a tear in my husband's eye the day we traded his '92 Honda Accord in for our minivan.

I understand. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Bubblewench DATE:Monday, September 10, 2007 at 12:02:00 PM EDT I'm sure Guy will come to love the Volvo if he just gives it a chance.. who wouldn't? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous FENICLE DATE:Monday, September 10, 2007 at 4:46:00 PM EDT It is a good thing you got another car with that little one the way & all the stuff that comes with babies!

I have ALWAYS wanted a Volvo Wagon. Am I nuts or what? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Heather, Queen of Shake Shake DATE:Monday, September 10, 2007 at 8:28:00 PM EDT Air conditioning is a perk? I thought that came standard down here in Alabamer?? haha! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Candygirlflies DATE:Monday, September 10, 2007 at 9:06:00 PM EDT Do you find it strange that you and I have had exactly the same car? Grey volvo stationwagon... and we have owned (and LOVED) not one-- but TWO of them, quirks and all!!

Ain't NOTHIN' like a volvo, baby. When I had to get a bigger car (a loser cruiser, no less) to accommodate my growing brood, I grudgingly passed the first volv. over to my husband. At first he hated it (said it was like driving around on the living room sofa), but eventually grew to love it so much, we up-graded him to a newer model!!

Guy will learn to love yours, too. Trust me.

xo CGF ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Ms Blue DATE:Tuesday, September 11, 2007 at 3:56:00 AM EDT It sounds like your car loves you as much as you love it. It's amazing how attached we get to our vehicles. ----- --------