Bakersfield Life

There’s little doubt that people develop an emotional attachment to their cars. I certainly know I always have. Over the 20 years in which I’ve driven, I’ve gone from no car to junk car to used car to what is now developing into a series of impractical but fun-to-drive cars.

The days of no car for a teenager is never fun. And honestly, which is worse: Begging your parents to use the car or actually driving their minivan around? There then comes a time in everyone’s life when they purchase their first car with their own money, and I remember mine like it was yesterday.

I was competing on the CSU Bakersfield track and field team and one of our standout javelin throwers had an old junker of a car that he offered to sell me for $500. Believe me, it wasn’t even worth $5, but I wanted my own car so bad, I jumped at the opportunity. It was a gorgeous (note the sarcasm) white 1976 Honda Civic, but apparently it was just the body of a Civic placed atop an Accord chassis. And the fun doesn’t stop there.

The passenger door was broken, so this superstar javelin thrower decided to use his ingenuity to wrap a jump rope through the door and tie it to the emergency brake to keep the door closed. Not only did that make a safety hazard (which I’m sure was highly illegal), but it was also very attractive on a date when my passenger had to climb through the driver’s-side door and climb across sit back in a seat that was secured by an old, fraying jump rope.

If the car became too hot, it wouldn’t start unless I let it sit for several hours, the radio and air conditioning didn’t work, and eventually, the front axle broke leaving me to sell my amazing 1976 white Honda Civic/Accord to a junkyard for $150.

Things did improve over time in the auto category. I think it peaked when I lived in Seattle and I purchased a Jeep Wrangler that I really enjoyed driving, especially for the two or three days a year it didn’t rain in the Pacific Northwest. Not learning my lesson, I traded in the impractical Wrangler just before gas prices jumped to more than $4 a gallon for a very big, very nice truck that only dreams of the 20 miles per gallon benchmark.

For most of us, with age comes nicer cars. We advance in our jobs and salary, and we show it in the comfort and luxury that we drive. This month, Bakersfield Life previews six 2009 luxury cars that are clearly a far cry from my first car.

It was a thrill getting five of these cars together for our photo shoot and seeing such luxury and technological advances in one place, from the luxury of the Mercedes and Lexus, to the pure power of the Corvette, to the sporty Jaguar convertible and the space-age design of the Audi. These are cars that I might not be ready to purchase just yet, but cars that I aspire to owning as I progress in my career.

But when looking at these cars and longing to drive one off for my own, several things became clear. These cars are certainly more practical for everyday driving than a Jeep in Seattle, they’re more fun to drive than a truck, and most importantly, they’re miles and miles more attractive to look at than a Civic/Accord combo with a jump-rope door stop.

So for those who use this 2009 car preview as a buyer’s guide, congratulations. I’ll be seeing you on the road in my BMW some day, hopefully sooner than later. And I’ll love driving it just as much as I enjoyed the freedom of my very first car – I just won’t have to worry about a loose knot letting the door fly open.