Ode to Lennon

The best car that I ever owned was my 1989 Toyota Camry LX. I purchased this car from an old co-worker for seven hundred dollars. When I bought the car it had 100,000 miles on it, no stereo and minor body damage.The drivers side locks were busted because of someone breaking into it to steal the radio, so to get it unlocked I had to walk to the passenger side.It was my first car, and even though he had some dings, slight rust, and was missing the passenger side mirror I loved him dearly. In this economy everyone wants a gas efficient car, I could put twenty dollars into my gas tank and drive for what seemed like forever.I got 30 mpg highway and 27 stop and go, and on a full tank of gas I could drive 300 plus miles.

Lennon had his quirks, sometimes when I hit a pothole my dash lights would go out and other days lights would come on the dash that would say ” NORM ” and me not being car literate thought that was his way of telling me he was having a good day on our drive to work. I drove this car every day for three years, and the only thing I ever had to replace was the alternator, but seeing as how the car was twenty two years old ( which is older then myself ) and it was the original part I think that’s pretty good. Through thick and thin he was always my trusty stead.

Every three months I would have my oil changed at a local shop. All of the guys that worked at the shop knew me because I worked at a drive through down the street, so they all teased me every time I came in. Well when you pull into have your oil changed, there’s this tricky ramp that you have to pull the vehicle onto so that the workers can get to where they need to be. Me being me and the amazing luck that I have manage to rip off my exhaust, catalytic converter, and my flex pipe before my car even made it all the way on the ramp. The poor car didn’t even see it coming. I got out of the car and had one of the technicians pull it the rest of the way up, the entire time he is in in tears laughing. I don’t blame them for laughing, I would have done the same thing. I didn’t have the money to repair the damages and to be honest they were worth more then the car itself. So I continued to drive it in that condition. You can imagine how loud the car was. Needless to say everyone knew it was me coming around the bend, you could here it a mile away.

On October 14, 2011 I was in a front end collision, the other driver running a red light hitting me on the passenger side quarter panel and spinning me around in a 180, and totaling my poor car. The man hit my so hard his license plate stamped into my bumper. Even though I had severe whiplash, and a minor back injury all I could do was cry because my poor, poor Lennon was no more and I knew it before i got out of my car. I could feel bits of glass in my mouth from where the windshield cracked. My air bags did not deploy, I am thankful that my daughter was not in the car I had only dropped her off twenty minutes prior to the accident. When my fiance came to asses the damages he noticed that my engine mounts were snapped and my block was laying sideways in the car.

I always told myself that because it was an older car made of steal that Lennon was a tank and would do more damage to another car then to itself, that was not true. I was hit by 99′ Buick regal and it only dented the drivers side front end. I will always miss my old car, but only because of the good times we had and his amazing gas mileage. I am now a proud owner of a GMC Jimmy, I will never own a sedan again. After going through all of the hassles of the insurance company’s and being without a vehicle for a month I now drive like a grandma. It took me a week of fighting, giving recorded statements and speaking to about fifty insurance adjusters,that I finally got a check for 1,952.00 for my total loss settlement.

The only thing I have left from my car is my owners hand book and my license plate ( which I had transferred to my new car ). I will always remember my first clunker, May he rest in peace.


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