While looking through pictures not too long ago, I came across a picture I took the day I got my first car.
My first car was a 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix. It was a gray-brown color. The right-front bumper had a few zip-ties on it to hold it up, and the driver’s side headlight didn’t have a cover. The driver’s door didn’t lock. It had some minor flaws, but they didn’t matter.
I bought it from a family friend. My mom, a friend and myself went to pick it up, since it was two and a half hours away. My friend came with to ride back home with me. I took it for a bit of a test drive first, to make sure I wanted it, but to be honest I was probably sold before I even drove it.
This car got me to and from school, work, and anywhere else I needed to be. After putting a new battery in it a month or two after I got it, it started perfectly all through the Minnesota winter, and I couldn’t complain.
A cotton candy scented air-freshener was hanging in the backseat. I bought two seat covers for the front seats and a steering wheel cover to match. I had gotten everything in the car the way I wanted it, just for me. Over the year I had it, I had noticed that the power-steering had a slow leak, but in the end, that was the least of my concerns.
About one year and 10,000 miles later is when I started to have bigger problems with it. First, I was having a problem with the transmission. (I know where to put basic fluids in my car, but I’m definitely no mechanic.) For some reason or another, it wouldn’t shift when I would get past 60 miles per hour. Shortly after that, the cruise control went out. Which is fine for driving around town, but it made the two and a half hour drive from Bemidji to Brainerd painful. I make two turns once I get on the highway in Bemidji, and that brings me straight into town. The biggest problem I ended up having was an awful oil leak. I was going through more than a quart of oil per week. Once it came to this, I came home over Thanksgiving break and took my grandparents’ truck back with me after.
When I came across this picture, it made me miss my car. I haven’t had my own car since the problems with my Grand Prix. I’m torn between wanting to get it fix and just trying to find a newer, but affordable, car. For now, it sits in the pole shed, waiting for me to make a decision.
