The History of Our Old Car

Gang and I plan to sell our old Nissan "Strongy" these days. An experienced buyer checked its VIN on carfax and offered us a detailed report of its history since 1996. This is our first time getting a full picture of what Strongy has been through in the past 16 years. And to a certain extent, it's also a miniature of common people's lives in west US.

On August 2nd 1996, Strongy was bought by its first owner in Arizona who took loans from bank to cover the car. However it was auctioned about two years late. Motor Vehicle Department in Utah bought it and soon sold it to an owner in California in Jan 1999. This guy took good care of the car and kept it until 2007, when it was sold to the third owner, who kept it for another 2 years. At that time, Strongy was already 11 years old,  running more than 10,000 miles in the US. We got the car in 2008 as the fifth owner, and kept it for 4 years until now.

Strongy is no longer what it was 16 years ago: it has been equipped with new battery, tires and other tiny accessories. With old-fashion looks, it functions very well, bringing us the all around the west coast. In summer 2009, we drove it along Route One to Las Vegas. The engine roared in desert for four hours without breaks. Another adventure was in Yosemite, when we drove from the west entrance to the east exit at night on the winding hilly road for three hours. If anything happened during those three hours, I wouldn't be here writing blogs. The last long journey we took with Strongy was to Seattle. We stopped by the Crater lake and Portland in Oregon, and then drove straight to the north. On our way back, we took a break along the high way. Gang stroked its front cover and said "you've worked hard."

When we were apart on coasts, Gang commuted between Stanford and Berkeley for another year. Integrating into the traffic at rush hours, Strongy accompanied Gang during the boring waiting hours. Every time I got off the plane at SFO and saw Strongy waiting outside with the Chinese knot hanging above the front window, it produced a feeling of home immediately.

Strongy has witnessed our drift around in the US during the last few years. I practiced driving in the spacious parking lot at Walmart with it on arrival at California. Gang very patiently repeated instructions, and explained the functions of each button. I drove around for days until I could finally distinguish gas and break. One night I was duped into driving Strongy on a highway, and scared both Gang and myself. I drove off the highway as soon as I found an exit, and stunned in shock for quite a while. We cleaned the car by hand once in a month if not raining. Sometimes it got really dirty, but we decided to ignore. Now I'm still a poor driver, but Strongy is the only car that I'm used to manipulating with sophistication. Its shimmy on muddy roads and the slightly crooked steering wheel both became part of my driving experiences.

(Photo taken in Yosemite after Strongy tramping over all the mountains behind it in 2010)