Monday, September 24, 2007

Easy on the Eyes?


Lately I've heard the same ad for automotive matintenance a bunch of times on the radio. The lady announcer is bragging about maintaining her Pontiac. She starts by saying as she was being passed by a bicyclist, she began thinking about how much she loves her Pontiac. When I heard that I choked on my chocholate milk. How can you love a car that's so slow it's being passed by someone on a bike? Does her Pontiac work on the freeway? HOw does she climb up that spiraling entrance rmap from Cedar to 62 during the morning rush?
The best part of the ad is when the announcer describes her Pontiac as "easy on the eyes, quick and stylish." Her voice lilts with excitement. I used to own a Pontiac 6000. My Pontiac was rusty, slightly slow and had no discernible style. But everyday it fired up, and that made me love it almost as much as my Festiva.
I noticed people avoided the Pontiac while I was merging onto the freeway, unlike the Festiva, which people tried to run over during merging. After a few months of driving my Pontiac, I got the feeling people were trying to avoid parking next to me in public lots. I'd walk out of Kohl's and the spots on either side of me were empty, even though I was parked right in front of the entrance. Maybe people were deterred by the rust spots the size of a baby's head that covered the car. I figured it just saved me a few door dings.
I miss my Pontiac. The rust that decorated its exterior ultimately led to its demise. The starter mount rusted so badly that my starter vibrated wildly as I drove, eventually killing it. I kept buying starters at Viking Auto Salvage in Farmington. After going through a few starters, I figured out the mount was damaged and not feasibly replaceable. A Viking rep came to pick up the Pontiac and recycle it for me. May my Pontiac 6000 rest in peace. I just hope its parts allowed other Pontiac 6000s to live on, as unstylish and hard on the eyes are they are. Just like the auto maintenance ad gal, I loved my old Pontiac.




I included a couple of snapshots of Pontiac 6000s here to illustrate my story. Sadly, my Pontiac did not look as nice as these. I do not in way intend to
represent these photos as images of my Pontiac.

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