The Cruiser is dead. Long live the Compass!
(note: originally posted on Facebook with tagged friends, since I had alot of friends asking about it.)
Yes, my beloved PT Cruiser is dead. That poor old vehicle has transported me across the midwest, Chicago to New York, Toronto to Alabama. Needless to say, I’ve had many many memories in the old girl, from friends to lovers. Killing the Cruiser is like killing a part of me - I’ve been driving her for the better part of 7 years, up until last Sunday. I’d like to say that she went down in a blaze of glory, but that’s not the case.
My sister was in the blind spot of a merging car on 696 eastbound just before the 94 interchange. She swerved out of the way, but lost control of the Cruiser, spinning out of control, and going up the grass embankment. Overall she didn’t hit anything with the body of the Cruiser, however she caught the edge of a concrete barrier, hitting it with the front left and rear left wheels. This flattened and severely dented the rear left wheel, and flattened the tire as well.
The mortal damage, however, comes from the rack-and-pinion steering being destroyed from the front left wheel impact, breaking the tie rods, and puncturing the transmission. With the steering rack destroyed (one super-expensive repair job) and the transmission also destroyed (another super-expensive job) the insurance company declared the old girl a loss, as the repairs cost more than the book value of the vehicle.
This was all last Monday, the first day of my Spring Break.
Wednesday and Thursday I sadly emptied out the Cruiser, removing all the buttons I had attached to the headliner, and the junk that sat in the back of the car (including a George Foreman Grille that had been in there for nearly a year.) What got me most was when I realized that the dead Cruiser sat behind the Chrysler bump shop, only a few hundred feet from where I first saw her, as a 14/15 year old about 9 years ago.
It’s sad, and I’ll miss the poor girl like I miss old friends that I haven’t seen in a long time… except I’ll never see the Cruiser again.
Compass?
My dad has been working with Chrysler for over 30 years now, and has had money invested in the company for the greater part of that time. However, with the uncertainty of who/what will be owning the company in the next few years (or even six months), my dad was offered to either collect his investment in one lump sum, or in payments over the next few months/years.Again, due to the uncertainty, my dad decided on the lump sum.
His plan was to either buy my mom a new vehicle, passing her current van down to my sister, or buy a car for my sisters, sometime in the next few months.
Well, this screwed up his timetable and the overall plans. We dropped by the Chrysler/Jeep dealership on Thursday, and we picked out a mew white Jeep Compass. Even though my dad suggested picking up another PT Cruiser, I said no… you can’t replace the Cruiser like that.
So the Jeep Compass is the closest thing to a Cruiser without getting a Cruiser, in my opinion. We pick up the new car on Monday.
One thing, though, is that I don’t really feel deserving of <i>another</i> car for me. In reality the Cruiser, and the Compass, are “family” cars that my sisters and I are to share, but for quite a few years, I was the only other driver in the family besides my parents, more or less making the family Cruiser my own for that time.
I still feel undeserving of a new car, and I feel like maybe this entire entry is just one long White Whine. While friends of mine are having much bigger difficulties… I don’t know.
Nevertheless, I’m gonna miss the Cruiser. So many good memories made in that car, and made possible by that car. The Cruiser is dead. Long live the Compass!
