The plan was to be back in Atlanta in our trustworthy 10-year-old Ford Explorer by midnight. We had to drive 2.5 hours to Rome, GA the following day and needed some sleep first.
Instead, we arrived home at 3 a.m. in a bright red 2010 Mustang. Okay, so a little less sleep, but we drove to Rome anyway and everyone thought we’d gone crazy and bought a new car.
Truth be told, we enjoyed driving the Mustang for several days, though the circumstances could have been better and cheaper.
When leaving Columbia, the freeze plug blew out of the Explorer. This was late on a Sunday night–at the time we didn’t know it. We thought the water pump had gone out. It took a lot of cell phone calls to find a tow truck that would take the car to a place that would assess the damage the following day; then to call a taxi to take us to the airport, the only place with any rental cars open.
We called ahead and reserved a cheap, mid-sized car. But traffic was heavy and the place ran out of cheap. So they gave us the Mustang as a complimentary upgrade.
When my wife–who had several Mustangs in the 1970s–saw the car in the airport parking garage, she said “things are looking up a bit.”
The following day, we learned that there was no major damage to the Explorer–just a corroded plug. We thought it was going to be worse.
You can tell we’re both out of touch with today’s cars. When we pulled in to a gas station, we had no idea how to open the gas tank “door.” We expected a latch on the inside. We felt pretty stupid when we found out all you do is tap the door and it opens.
I keep wondering if Gordon Lightfoot is somehow responsible for all of this and needs to buy us a car or send us an autographed CD! Or maybe a sack of extra freeze plugs…
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That little adventure turned out pretty well after all! I’ve wondered what the new Mustangs were like compared to the old ones.
These have a sleek design that seems true to the spirit of the original. At night, the dashboard lights give one the impression he’s sitting in an airplane. Fun starting at about $20,000, unless you want one of the GT models getting you up in the high $40,000 range. Think of the insurance costs on that, not to mention MPG.
Malcolm
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The insurance costs on new vehicles really add to the cost of driving these days. I would guess as much as 60% of the cost of fuel. I’m thinking my next new car will be a horse.
I hope you have easy access to some grasslands to cut down on the feed bill. Promise me you won’t give it a name like “Dobbin” or “Fury” or “Flicka.”
Malcolm