Many of you knew our little black car. It was a 1996 Geo Prizm, twin to the Toyota Corolla Sprinter, built in the NUMMI plant in California during the height of the “captive import” craze. We were its second owners, having bought it from my parents when it was a couple years old. It served for many years as our good car/road trip car, and for many more as the winter car and errand car around town.
I learned to drive on the little black car. Several fine dogs took their first and their last rides in it. It was wrecked twice. It was keyed once at the Chicago Comicon in the parking lot of the old Ramada Inn. I expected to inherit it when my Buick, Junior, wore out, but Junior is still in the driveway and the little black car is gone. It went to its long reward this morning, suffering from several major systemic failures that wouldn’t have made financial sense to repair. Its replacement, a little red car, appears in the photograph.
It was not exciting, or even interesting, but it was a very good car. Sic transit gloria mundi.