Alicia's Story

I name all my cars, Alicia was my MR2, my baby, a 1991 Non-Turbo model with T-Tops and a 5-Speed Transmission. When I bought her the guy I bought her from was the third owner and somewhere along the line she had racked up 145,000 miles. She ran great, no leaks at all, the only problem was no A/C and the Power Steering was not hooked up because of it, I never noticed. She came into my possession wearing a few different shades of white paint with black trim and gunmetal wheels, the interior was a 90's faded blue but in good condition.

I was in love, the car handled like
a dream and had plenty of power available for a car that weighed about 2500 pounds. Alicia was my first "car" as before her I had been given a 1990 Toyota Pickup with over 300,000 miles and a 1991 2WD 4Runner that I bought for $750. I had actually ended up screwing myself over with this car at first because I had to drive my dad's 4Runner to bring my brother and sisters to school in the mornings so until I graduated.  I was only allowed to drive her on the weekends, it was torture. I was 17, I had my dream car (It still is my dream car, I want an MR2 more than any other car and my online handle, rockingthe2, reflects that. That is why this is rockingthe2.blogspot.com), and I couldn't drive it. I was a senior, with a mid-engine 2 seat sports car, I talked incessantly about it, but I only got to drive it to school about 7 times that year. I do remember one day we convinced our English teacher to let us go to 7-11 down the road and get food, I mentioned that I had my MR2 that day and everyone wanted to ride with me because they wanted to see what I was always talking about.

3 months after I bought Alicia, my worst nightmare came true, I wrecked her. I was being stupid and trying to get home on time, driving way too fast for the road and the conditions. Coming around the corner into my neighborhood she decided to let go and I careened into the curb, sideways, at around 50mph. It took me $1500 and 3 long months to rebuild her, but I got her back on the road and running right. I had to replace basically the entire front end mechanically, the rack and pinion, the lower control arm, the rim and tire, some bracing, and a few other things were all bent making the wheel stick into the body of the car around an inch. Thankfully there was no body damage so I lucked out on that part.

Graduation day I left a long black patch of rubber out of the parking lot (No LSD...) and was excited not because I had graduated high school, but because the MR2 was now officially mine! That summer when I wasn't working I was out driving, I got to know every back road near my house and a very good feel for the handling characteristics of her. I got a buddy of mine to put a 20% tint wrap on all the windows with 5% windshield bar and T-Tops, completely illegal in Virginia but I never got in trouble for it. I did get my first ticket with Alicia, 9mph over the speed limit, nothing crazy.

In September of 2008 I left for a school in Florida, it was awesome, I got to drive Alicia from my home in Virginia down to Tampa Florida. A 12 hour road trip! The best part was always coming back on break, I always left at night and got to my house around noon the next day with no traffic and awesome weather. An 18 year old with the whole road to himself in his favorite car at night, loud music, T-Tops off and windows down! Perfect.

Around February I made the worst mistake I have made to date, I sold Alicia. I had no job, no money, and I was in school and couldn't keep her repaired. I could barely scrape together the money to change the oil much less replace the starter and alternator like she needed. I still regret selling her, if I would have held out a few more months I would still have her and be loving driving her all over.

Right now Alicia belongs to some guy in Florida who is in the middle of giving her a twin turbo V6 and full makeover. I still keep an eye on her and if I had a job and enough money, I would buy her back in a heartbeat. If you are thinking of selling a car you love take my advice here, DON'T. I miss Alicia now and with the gas prices going the way they are I really wish I had her back. If time travel were invented and it was only physically possible for one person to travel back in time, I would go back and make sure I never sold her. I miss Alicia.