It used to be so simple.
If more than one person used a car, you simply moved the front bench seat forward or back, then adjusted the side-view and rear-view mirrors, and off you went! More below, but first:
WYFP is our community's Saturday evening gathering to talk about our problems, empathize with one another, and share advice, pootie pictures, favorite adult beverages, and anything else that we think might help. Everyone and all sorts of troubles are welcome. May we find peace and healing here. Won't you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?
I recall a scene from Father Knows Best, where Margaret (played by Jane Wyatt) asks Jim (played by Robert Young) if the keys are in the family's 1954 Mercury, as she has to run some errands. Aside from the key issue (I doubt anyone in the mid 50's left their keys in the car), obviously some adjustment would have to be made. In fact the Andersons probably had to readjust the car's front seat several times a day, since there would ultimately be three or four members of the family driving the car over the course of a week (Jim, Margaret, Bud, and maybe Betty).
Today, we have many more adjustments: seat height, seat back angle, seat pad angle, side view mirrors on both sides of the car, steering wheel, etc. And all that can make sharing a vehicle a bit more daunting, though also safer, putting you where you can see properly, but not get injured by a triggered airbag.
Time was, Calamity Jean and I each had our own cars for good reason, as we both commuted to work. I had to use my car for field work, so she had to have a car for getting to her office, and taking cats to to the vet, etc. This continued after her office was consolidated downtown in the West Loop, near a Metra station. We each had the driver's seat and all other items adjusted to our individual tastes. And since Calamity Jean can drive stick, her car was so equipped, so I would merely be a passenger in her car.
And when we started looking for, and eventually found, our place out in the country, we alternated on driving duties.
The plan had been to replace her 1998 Honda Civic with a farm-appropriate vehicle, most likely a pickup, that both of us could drive. Unfortunately, a car thief had other ideas in the spring of 2009, desiring the low-mileage engine and transaxle in my wife's car, resulting in it being stolen, and a week and a half later, found stripped. She decided to obtain a good, used Focus, not unlike my 2001 ZX3, and succeeded in finding a 2004 model, from what turned out to be a less-than-honest Ford dealer in our area. It had some problems that needed fixing, but one would expect that in a used car. But the real surprise about Calamity Jean's Focus was to be revealed in March of 2012.
It was the Ides of march (the 15th), and she was heading up to the senior community where her parents resided, when she mistakenly blew a red light here in Chicago, and totalled the Focus. She broke two bones in her left hand, and all the driving was now my province. It strained my poor old 2001 Focus enough that I had to replace some expensive parts, like the wheel bearings, fuel injectors, both oxygen sensors, and the catalytic convertor.And after all that, I'm still unsure about driving it! But the real surprise was that the insurance company had found that the 2004 Focus had been totalled before, in 2006!
The upshot was that Calamity Jean insisted that the replacement be a new car, and in addition to visiting her father, physical therapy, and running all the errands, we started looking for a new car. She picked 5 candidates, and worked it down to 2, eventually getting the deal she wanted for the 2012 Volkswagen Golf with an automatic transmission. And it's a nice car. And she had enough money set aside to buy it, too.
But, again, if we are going anywhere far, with expressway speed driving, we take the VW. And if Calamity Jean wants me to drive, there are a lot of tweaks that need to be made. Which always reminds me of some concept cars I read about in the late 60's that had been built by Ford. They had fixed seats, but the pedals and steering wheel mount were power-adjusted, and there were 2 "memory" buttons you could hold down after getting everything right, and pushing those buttons would set everything to one of two people's desired positions. Maybe some really swank, expensive cars might have this, but it seems everyone is pushing Bluetooth interfaces,
and some sort of Web access. I'd prefer the memory buttons, myself.
And, of course, we are a bit strapped for money now with the new house going up, so it looks like my next vehicle will probably be that farm-friendly one. The basement garage in our new house will only accomodate two vehicles, and for some time we may be a single-car family. It would be nice if I were to win, say, the Lucky Day Lotto, and be able to trade in my old Focus on someting new, but that's not anywhere near a sure thing. And Calamity Jean has been asking me if a C-Max Energi could haul a trailer (I suspect it can't), so I have to think big. An SUV (or a pickup), not a second Golf.
And I did, last year, while she was finishing up buying her Golf. The dealer had what I thought would be the perfect compromise, a 2012 VW Touareg Hybrid SUV. Both the hybrid and standard Touareg can haul 7000 lbs., and the hybrid can operate on electricity alone at expressway speeds. And I could park it on a City street, unlike a pickup. It was only something like $64,000 dollars.
She said no. No money (c'mon, Lucky Day Lotto!), too much power, and not a plug-in hybrid.
Are there even any plug-in hybrid SUV's from other makers?
Oh, well...
That's one of my FP's. What's yours?