I own 2 cars all my adult life: both Toyota.

My first one was a Toyota Celica, ’82 I believe. I inherited it from my sister; she left it to me after she upgraded to a red Mazda Miata. I drove it all during my college years. It was a brown compact car– damn ugly color but hey beggar can’t be chooser right? I was thrilled I had something called my own. And I had no money at the time.

I took it with me when I moved to the Bay Area in summer of 1992 to take an engineering job with NorTel. A few weeks into the job, I woke up one morning and discovered the car was gone. I couldn’t believe some idiots actually stole a freaking old car like mine. I was staying temporarily at my uncle’s in San Jose at the time. The cops eventually found it in Bakersfield a few days later!

I used the car for a year and a half. During that time, I occasionally made trips back to southern Cal. Looking back, it was rather miraculous that the darn thing didn’t crap out in the middle of the trip on me. Oblivious at the time, but I learned later that the underlying of the Celica was rusting away. But I liked the car; it was small and perfect size for me at that time. It didn’t give me a lot of troubles despite its age & condition.

I gave the Celica to my cousin in Sacramento in ’93 after my Dad gave me a ’94 Camry. This time it’s brand new. It was a family sedan, not exactly a model I’d go for but I inherited this second car, once again. I’ve been driving this Camry for almost 14 years now. The Camry proved to be ultra reliable and pretty maintenance free. I’m very impressed with Japanese auto making. During my years of driving it, it required only 1 major service and the one period of time when it had some electrical problems (due to human errors), I had no other troubles with it. Over the last few years, I actually waited for it to die on me so I have an excuse to trade in for a new set of wheels. No such luck.

But I drove the old reliable Camry one last time this past Sunday. My last ride on it was to a park by myself (wasn’t a nostalgic ride, I just had some reading to do). I gave it to my aunt since her son is starting college this year. I am actually sad to part with it.

I’ll be driving my Dad’s van until he comes back to the states later this year. I’ve several months to do some research for my next car. It should be fun… It’ll be the first time in my life that I’d walk into the show room buying a car for myself. Well, that’s assuming I’ll decide on getting a new car.

Having driving Toyota all these years, it’d be nice to get something non-Toyota. But I’m not ruling it out completely. But then again, do I really want stick to driving the same car for another 14 years? 🙂