My Actifit Report Card: December 2 2024

Today, I am going to write about my first car. This post is inspired by Eric Vance Walton @ericvancewalton and his Memoir Monday initiative.

I think it is a great idea to write a series of blog posts that bring back memories that would otherwise fade into the non-existentance with time.

My first post is answering the following question:

"What was your first car?"

My first car that I actually bought with my own money was Mercury Topaz in gold pictured above.

It was 1997, and I was a senior at the University of Kansas School of Business.

At the time, I was a student at the University of Kansas, and I sold an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme in maroon color to a dealer, added some cash, and bought the Topaz.

We got the Oldsmobile from my first wife's parents and drove it from California to Lawrence Kansas.

After a little while, we wanted something more modern, and that is why we traded it for a Topaz. At the time, online reviews were not yet the thing, so we had no idea how unreliable that car was. It was basically a Ford Tempo in a Mercury styling.

It was also a not very lucky car. About a week after I bought it, it got pummeled with a huge hail storm while it stood in an open-air parking lot of married student housing.

And that was not all. About a month later, I parked it on campus on the street by the Computer Center, where I worked an overnight shift and when I came out after work in the morning I discovered that someone ran into it and took out the rear bumper.

I reported it to campus police and even had a piece of the car that ran into me, but campus police never found the perpetrator naturally 😀

Before my graduation in 1999 from the University of Kansas, I sold the Topaz and my friend Sergei, who was a car dealer, helped me buy a two door white Ford Explorer Sport.

Ford Explorer served me really well until I traded it in under "Cash for Clunkers" federal program for Toyota Prius.

I still remember that old Topaz from my early 20s as it was the first car I ever bought and it was special for me.
This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io

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