If you're still reading this at this exact sentence, then allow me to introduce myself. My name's Jacob. I'm 23 years old, and as of August 2, 2014, I became the third proud owner of a 1994 AE102 Toyota Corolla DX Station Wagon. Because I am also needlessly sentimental, I have thus christened said Corolla Wagon 'Wendy'.
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| Obligatory narcissistic Instagram-filtered night shot in some grocery store parking lot quarter-panel rust |
One thing that will be a persistent theme throughout however many blog posts I put out is my love of cars. I don't consider myself to be fiercely loyal to any one particular brand or manufacturing base (i.e. Ford Vs. Chevy, Muscle vs. Import vs. Euro, et al), and before I got nerdy/geeky/dorky about anything else in life, I was and still am first and foremost a car nut. That said, 'Wendy', as I shall refer to my car primarily from now on, is hardly the picture of an enthusiast's dream. She is a station wagon (or for those of you in the UK/rest of Europe, an 'Estate Car') variant of one of the most commonly-driven cars in the world, and when compared to the likes of the older AE86 Corolla GT-S/Trueno/Levin coupes and liftbacks, models like Wendy aren't exactly the sort of future collectible that other cars in Toyota Motor Company's history are quickly becoming. For that matter, Wendy came equipped with the optional 4-speed overdrive automatic transmission that remained unchanged for 14 straight years of manufacture in all automatic Toyota Corollas equipped with the 1.8L 7A-FE Inline 4 engine. Nomenclature nerding aside, Wendy is a fairly basic Corolla meant for getting people and things from point A to point B and back, and as such has an AM/FM cassette radio, manual door locks and power windows, with the exception of the tailgate (considered a fifth door), which has a single power lock and can only be opened from outside. Equipped with the automatic transmission, Wendy will also achieve a reasonable 29 MPG highway, 23 MPG city, and 25 MPG combined city/highway fuel economy rating; perhaps more with hardcore hypermiling habits.
But I named this blog My Wagon is My Waifu for a reason (for the confused, the textbook definition of 'waifu' can be found here). My aforementioned needless sentimentality for Wendy stems from a little under half a decade of longing to drive but ultimately being unable to do so for various reasons that I prefer not to disclose at this time. While I began to like cars simply because of their tangible representation of power and engineering, I have come to appreciate cars for the sheer sense of freedom and liberation one gets when they first start driving. I myself got my license in July of 2014, but due to scheduling conflicts and prolonged coordination, Wendy did not come into my possession until August, when an uncle of mine bequeathed her to me, simply because he wasn't getting much use out of her beyond being a town runabout for getting groceries. Since taking possession of Wendy, however, I've been finding every single excuse to drive her to whichever destination I need to be. Thanks to Wendy, I no longer have to plan everything I do during the week around the schedule of the local bus service, and I can go to a lot more places when the fancy strikes me. The fact is that a car needn't have an overwhelming amount of horsepower to give the driver an incredible sense of power over his or her own destiny. On the day I got Wendy, I wasted no time registering her in my name and then driving her just about everywhere, including the nearby-in-relation-to-where-I-live Valley Forge National Historical Park:
As I move along with this blog, you're likely to see more pictures of places I've been with this car that I love so much. Having a car truly means having a bigger world to explore.
Nice initial post MP5. It was a little to technical for my taste your last bit was great and here is to many more successful road trips
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