I had some history with this car, specifically that I took it on my first tour. When I pulled up to my tour mates' houses in January 2011, my sweet ride was not greeted with expressions of conviction. I doubt they believed that my rusty but trusty hatchback would get us through our prairie winter expedition.
But she did. And them some. This baby always started, no matter what the temperature, and whether or not she was plugged in. The body was rusted out on every panel, but she'd seen no accidents and her heart was young from a lifetime of short jaunts with the original owner. When we purchased the car in 2009, she had only 70, 000 km on her. (Seriously! Do the math.) In 2010 I heard a podcast of This American Life that talked about a car plant in Fremont, California - a joint venture between Toyota and GM. It was called NUMMI, and was known for its high quality of manufactured cars. This vintage of Corolla was among the models that were assembled at the plant. The news made me feel disproportionately proud to own this beaut.
Our only caution was that she was simply old. Door seals, window cranks, and anything made of aged, brittle materials like vinyl or plastic were predisposed to easy damage. Thus, we dubbed her "Gentle" as this was what we'd yell if anyone was being a bit rough on the girl.
Gentle was purchased by a father who was looking for a cheap, reliable car for his 16 year old son. We came to the decision to sell her after we had received a few parking tickets and undergone two missions to find her after she was towed for street cleaning. When she was demoted to being our second vehicle, she no longer got the love she needed. I haven't seen her cruising the streets of Regina yet, but I'm still hoping.
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