God bless my Toronado. It has been by and far the best car I’ve ever owned. Reliable, comfortable, unique… I have a lot more emotionally invested in it than I do monetarily. And over the years since I’ve painted it (almost 4 years ago!) time has kept marching on to prove that it’s still a 25 year old car that’s seen the rigors of use every single day.
The plastic fillers on the front bumper have been cracking for a long time. The left front has finally let go. My power door lock switch on the drivers side busted. I think I’m just going to swap it with the passenger side for now. You can get a new switch for $25, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. And worst of all, with being forced into 25 winters worth of Kansas salty roads, the rust is just starting to take its toll. There’s a small spot on the front fender. Little bubbles behind the rear wheels, and I just noticed yesterday that it’s just barely starting to bubble through on the rear bumper. And of course the hail damage from the “Carpet Bombing of ’08”.
Mechanically, it’s still solid as a rock! I honestly still wouldn’t hesitate to change the oil and drive to California! It still gets decent gas milage. I recently made a trip to Wichita, back to Great Bend, to Hays and back to Great Bend on one tank of gas! Not bad for an old barge!
So I’m wrestling with the thought of spending any more money on cosmetics for the car. My thoughts are I need to be saving for the successor. Which if I spend what I did on this one, won’t take long! For now I’ll keep driving it. It still gets some compliments. And from about 20ft, it’s still a pretty sharp ride. But it’s like when you know the time is getting near, and you’re going to have to think about the day when you just have to let it go.
December 1st, 2010 at 7:36 am
Matt, even I am a little attached to the Toronado! It isn’t often that we have a car that is older, and yet we feel perfectly comfortable heading a few blocks to work, across town to the store or across the country to the ocean!