Do we go for a foreign made car or a vehicle made in our great country. Not bothered !
Do we have mag wheels and a exhaust system that is guaranteed to wake the neighbourhood in a 5 klm radius? I don't think so !
Do we install a sound system that gives Doof Doof music the right to pollute any other car which is parked neatly next to them at a set of traffic lights as they wait to drag you off ?. Not my scene !
Shall we have leather seats ?. nice .. or shall we have one that basically does all the driving for you ?.. possibly.
Do we get one that is automatic or manual? Personally, I do have to admit I like a manual. Yeah so maybe there is a bit of hot foot within me as I like to feel the power of a car as I control the gears aound that corner that is sure to bring out the inner hoon in us all.
Is it a 4 cylinder or 6? How many cylinders does one need? The only cylinders I am familiar with are the ones left over from the toilet rolls that have been unceremoniously dumped on the loo floor waiting for that magical bathroom fairy to appear again and remove ! At least they can be put to good use in a kindergarten group for making binoculars or something else !
Choices for the shape, the body of the car are numerous. Stationwagon, hatch back, Ute, convertible, 4wd to name a few ( actually I don't really know any other ones so will just stick with them for fear of making a Doof of myself ! ). Do we go for the 3 door or the 5. Ummm .. for me the 5 ( that includes the boot opening ). I need a 5 door. With 2 ferals in the back seat and a stinky dog to shove in to the boot I have to admit for me it is a must. I also like a car that is higher off the ground. Being tall it is far easier to hoick ones legs into a higher vehicle that one that feels like your posterior is being scrapped along the ground at the break neck speed of 60 klm per hour.
You can tell a lot about a person by the car they drive. Its true !! There are the zippy little cars driven by the city girls all decked out with pretty decorations that are designed to make driving a cute experience. Or there are the Ute's that have not seen their true colour for years that belong to the farmers.
The big 4wds, ( yes we do have one that does actually see mud from time to time and I don't just mean the pot hole in our drive way ) that are supposed to be used for some wild off road grunting and bonding with the male species as we women sit beside them with white knuckles hanging on for dear life as the car does a manuver that I am sure is as illogical as a bumble bee being able to fly . But there are many out there who use them for other purposes, and that's fine too don't get me wrong, but they are not the easiest thing to manuver around the skinny school pick up lane amongst all the little zippy models and screaming frazzled
Cars as said previously always seem to conk out at the most inopportune moments. Crossing a major bridge in peak hour traffic .. done that, or deciding not to start at the top of a multi-story car park and having to beg some blokes to help push it to the ground 6 stories below. To then be put on a truck, driven 5 minutes for $90 and then spend the next hour praying to the car fairy to fix it super fast and for the cheapest price as I am still an hour away from home and need to return to the screaming hoards... Lets just say it was a very expensive shopping trip that day ! . But it will always happen, at least to me, like that.
I have only been .. and I know this is rather pathetic, pumping my own petrol for the last 5 years. Before we moved to our house of mud we lived up the back of whoop whoop in the mountain areas and we had the most lovely local servo. I would pull in and out would come a greasy bloke with a big smile on his face. "Fill 'er up please" I would say and amazingly I would not even have to step one pretty manicured toe out of my car. He would wave me off as I yelled out the window to just ''pop it on the account " and off I would go to my very important destination .. and as we all know, being a woman , ALL our destinations are important.
But we moved so I actually had to learn how to do it. I had to get those manicured toes out of my vehicle, push the buttons for the correct amount and hold the nozzle at the right angle with out covering myself in fuel as the weather decideds to drop its lastest drink all over my nicely styled hair sending it in to a craze of fuzz !.
As for the price of fuel !! I remember the days when we panicked if it was going to go over 50 cents!! Now we breathe a sigh of relief if it stays below 3 times that amount!
Cars are an important part of our lives and I suppose we could not do with out them. The days of the poor old nag and cart have left us and I am sure the horses have sighed in relief, but cars do have their uses. It only takes 10 minutes to get in to the ' bustling ' hub of our local town. I can run the ferals from one activity to the next in record time ( if not caught by the local constable ) and I can fill it up after my trip to the ... ugh .. supermarket by just shoving all the very very healthy and organic ( cough cough ) food in and slamming the boot door shut , hoping when I get home it does not decide to unpack its self all over the ground in a big soup like mess for the dog to clean up. Yep they can be handy.
I like the colour cars can come in. I am a red girl. Lurve red. For a woman, and not all again I add, but for the majority its the colour and what it has to offer in luxuries that will sell it.
Yep I do like the thought of a car that can parraele park itself as it is not one of my finer skills. I have been know to do blockies of the local shopping strip to find a park that I do not have to slide my car into sideways !.
I like the idea of comfy seats and even a chair heater for those mornings sitting watching the ferals play soccer. At least my derriere can be warm . I like to think it suits me and will serve all the purposes I ask of it. If we did not have different coloured cars anyway..how would we play car cricket ? White ...You are out !
To me a car is a machine that can make ones life easier, faster, poorer and more frustrating. It can bring happiness to be able to travel to see some long lost relative that has just re-emerged from the wilds of the west after 25 years, and it can provide a great taxi service for the day to day life of a busy kid house hold.
It can bring frustration and despair as it decides to die once again in the middle of a highway blocking the traffic for an embarrassing hour as you hope no-one you know drives past giving that wave and red necking out their window to gawk at the problem. But still, maybe I can see what does appeal ( a little bit anyway ) to those who love them. Maybe if I sort of squint my eyes and stick my tongue out at a funny angle, I might see what some others like about them. Maybe ...
But I will stick to my silver science experiment of a car for the time being. I will cross my fingers that every time I open the boot it will actually shut and I wont have to stand there like a big twit pretending to know what I am doing as I stick things into the lock to try and make it stay closed. I will continue to turn my music up louder than necessary to block out the ferals fighting in the back seat and sing like no-one is watching when I am alone and just crusin'.
I will continue to apologise to those I chauffeur in my car for the terrible smell of kid, wet dog and wombat poo that seems to continually permeate my vehicle. But hey this is me .. this is my car and it may not be that red convertible that I admit, I am longing for but, as long as it keeps going I will keep driving. I will continue pretending that its the wind and rain in my hair not a screaming child breathing and spluttering all over me from the back seat instead.
Cheers Dilly xx
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