Yeah, yeah, I know.
When Tina and I met she had just bought this little Festiva and it was glistening like a diamond. The thing was surprisingly roomy and got great mileage. When we married, I was driving a small Ford Ranger I had bought used, I allowed my EX to take the brand new Subura GL10 wagon I had paid CASH for.
She had my kids at the time and I wanted them to be safe.Tina told me to start driving the Festiva back and forth to work due to it's excellent gas mileage and she would zip around locally in the Ranger, since she was staying home and taking care of the kids. We had gotten custody of mine, and we had hers, so we had FOUR.
Just made sense for her to stay home where she was needed than to work just to pay for a sitter.That little Festiva was getting 45 mpg the way I drove it. LIke a mature adult. It had NO air conditioning, no cruise control, and 12" tires, but surprisingly, even with that tiny 4 cylinder engine, it had some pep and was quick if you needed to get out of trouble in traffic. It wasn't a race car by any means, but it wasn't a Yugo either. But, I treated it well and it was there for me, rarely had any issues.
It went thru a set of those 12" tires about every 30k miles, but Goodyear had tires for the car, and with the roadhazard, mounting and balancing, they were less than $100 for all FOUR!
I took care of the car, did most of the maintenance myself, up to and including changing the timing belt every 80k miles. I had just changed the timing belt at the 240k mile mark when I hit a huge buck coming home after a late night meeting in the fall, a 14 pointer. He was a big sucker, took the Game Warden and a Deputy to lift him into the Warden's pickup.The buck jumped out from behind a dump truck in the oncoming lane, and struck the driver's side quarter panel, the windshield, the driver's door and window, the rear quarter panel and rear seat window, and the rear (back) glass. Mr. Buck took out everything on the left side of the car and the hood. Geico took one look at the car and totaled it. They payout they offered was an insult, and I told them so. I told them to find me a replacement instead, showing them pictures of the pre-accident body condition, records on the gas mileage and maintenance we had done, and Goodyear provided their maintenance records and told them they would send a manager to court.
Geico doubled their offer, cut a check, and then sold us the car for $200 as salvage. Tina found a blown engine car with good body parts and glass for $100, and the car was back on the road within the week. She even found the right color blue paint at Walmart, and had it painted by the time I was back from work one afternoon. Once the paint cured and she waxed it... you couldn't really tell it had ever been wrecked.
I drove it another six months or so, and then she insisted I go and get a new car. By this time we could afford one, and I was driving back and forth to work in a full patrol uniform including body armor, in the heat with no AC...
I initially picked up a new Mazda Protege, but the car had issues, and the dealer Hummed and Hawwed for a month, but then we got them to take the car back and we traded up without a loss, and paid the difference on a B3000 pickup. So started the move toward me driving trucks to work. A young Army Reservist bought the little Festiva so he could drive it back and forth to Atlanta from Richmond for drill weekends... he needed something that got great mileage. I warned him that it wasn't a race car.... he needed to drive it like he had a brain.... First things he did?
Skull Valve Stem Caps,
Leather covered shifter knob
welded chrome chain steering wheel,
High backed tuck and roll leather seats...
Painted the wheels with Chrome Spray Paint.
Then... Then Hush Thrush Muffler.
in the Festiva. Really?
As expected, he blew up the little faithful four cylinder engine in less than two months.
He got to make ONE trip to Atlanta before he blew it up.
