"I love my car, I love my car...."

My first set of wheels may have sounded like a train and made me feel like a soccer mom, but I could fit a lot of people inside. Yes, friends, I drove a minivan. Not just any minivan. This was a 1997 ford windstar that existed in a color you have never seen before. Imagine this:

but in a cross between salmon, copper, champagne or pink. It also revved the engine by itself at stop signs, sped up in reverse, and constantly sounded the alarm for door ajar when driving under 30mph.

Needless to say, my parents were itching to get rid of the thing, so I drove it for a year or two and then we sold/gave it to somebody to get rid of. After highschool I went to school in Iowa for a year, where they don't own cars.

A year later I moved back to real life and bought my very own 2002 ZTS Ford Focus. It was beautiful. It was black. It was mine.

It was also made with every specialty part Ford could possibly come up with. The window motors, the oil filters, the tires and alloy wheels, the battery, the engine cooling thing, and that one thermastat housing unit deal. Every mechanic has a recording they play directly to me every time something goes wrong with my car "I'm sorry ma'am, normally this would cost ___ amount, but the Focus requires a specialty part so it will cost 2 x ___ amount."

I realize I am a female, and I also realize that I don't look like I know much about cars. You may realize I know nothing about cars. But no one is going to fall for $300 to fix a rear window motor. Especially the second time around. Which may or may not be why my car looks like this today:

Disclaimer: the tape used to be straight before it rained and thus tore my fantastic plastic window. I never realize how much pride I have in my car until I am forced to drive around town in something as ridiculous as a tape and saran wrap window. Yes that's right. Masking tape and saran wrap.

And this is what it's going to look like until I go home next week and have my brother-in-law force the window shut. Forever. Cause that's the price of having a Ford Focus made with 100% American-made specialty parts.