Tag: Mini Cooper

As I mentioned in last week’s Rides Around, I’m not really a car person.

But it turns out I am a little bit of a truck person.

When I was growing up my dad had a pick up truck. Dodge. Blue.  He drove it to work, mostly, but sometimes he’d work an overnight shift at the steel mill, and he’d let me drive it to school.  It was a treat to have my own wheels, even if it was an old truck, and even if it sometimes wouldn’t start right away, or stalled out on occasion.  I do remember turning the key in the school parking lot, and willing it to start… hoping it wouldn’t stall just at the point somebody super cool was walking out of the building.

Once I hit senior year of college I got my own car, thanks to a great deal given to me by my grandmother.  I don’t remember how much I put down, or even what the total was, but I remember that I paid her $100 a month until I could pay it off.

I leased a car, then tried a Honda del Sol (fun!) and then ran the wheels off a Civic and needed something else.

A Mini Cooper caught my eye.  Not many people had them in Texas, and it was a convertible (like the del Sol) and a great deal, so I snatched it up.  I found I enjoyed being a Mini “person”.  It got great gas mileage and when I made moves from Texas to California and back again, it held me, three suitcases, a guitar, a backpack and a dog just fine.

But this new neighborhood and its sea of potholes have been rough on the Mini.  In just a few months I quickly had to replace tires, and this week new issues began to surface that felt more like Big Trouble.  It was time to face facts.  I had to bid adieu to the Mini, and get something a little more…max.

I whined; I researched; I consulted my personal panel of experts, and I test drove a couple small SUVs.

But, as I learned when I was sixteen… there’s something about a truck.  I saw one online I liked.  Blue. No frills.  Just a truck with a few years and a few miles on it.  Grey and blue seats and two little jump seats in the back, for some very small passengers, just in case I run into any.  When I turned the key it started right up (thankfully) and I scanned the radio for a country station.  I had a big smile on my face the whole ride home.  It doesn’t fit in the garage as easily as the Mini, but I think it suits me just fine.