Dream Car

Many people hold a nice car as one of the big goals to reach in life, next to having a large house and a trophy wife. Many of this group aim for something along the lines of BMW, Audi, or Mercedes -- Ferarri or Aston Martin if you're doing it really big. To me, a vehicle has always been a four-wheeled contraption that got me from point A to point B. While there have certainly been cars that I've been fascinated with (the VW Beetle in high school, Audi TT in college, and more recently Tesla or Aptera's electric offerings), getting a car has never been number one on my priority list -- it may or may not beat out a soft-serve ice cream machine. But if someone handed me a large pile of cash and told me I had to use it to buy myself a car, I don't think there's any doubt in my mind what I would begin searching for:

1990 Toyota Corolla station wagon, sky blue

My family had one for as long as I can remember (which, as it apparently turns out, is when I five-ish years old) until my dad sold it after I left for college for some ludicrously low price of four hundred dollars (probably a gross underestimate). But man, if I had the money I would find one of these babies and be satisfied with my whip. Any money left over would go to pimping this car out -- not with plasma TVs and Playstations or even NOS to make it go faster, but rather simply with reliable brakes. That's my dream car.

The above picture is one snapped on my cellphone in the Albertson's parking lot recently during one of the few chances I get to see one of these things anymore. The below picture is the only one I have of what used to be my very own:

Cassette -> CD player adapter necessary.

Notice the simple yet well thought out console plan, the cruise control button and the crusty gear shifter -- crafty late 80' detailing and ingenuity still hold up today. I can't help but let out a sigh of longing after viewing the above -- one day perhaps, one day...