"The Wolf" Camry 1996 - 2007

1500 miles. Sounds like a long ways, and I can tell you first hand that it is. To put it into perspective think about how often you change the oil in your car. Most people do it after 3000 miles. When they make the change it usually happens lets say around every 4 months or so. So 2 months worth of average driving is the equivalent of 1500 miles. Well that is what I have done twice in the last week. Yes, I have traveled over the equivalent of what most people drive in 4 months in roughly 1 week.
My car, my reliable, comfortable, travel weary Toyota Camry is no more. 07/05/07 was a day of mixed emotions for me last Thursday when I drove my Camry for the last time to the dealership in Epping NH. The car that I had obtained in October of 2000, after having my Chrysler Concorde obliterated by a careless driver after owning for a mere week. The car that saw me leave my folks place for the first time when I ventured out to see if I could survive on my own when I moved to Syracuse NY. The car that survived many snow storms, and kept me safe even when I forgot to check the tread level on her tires one Thanksgiving and ended up in a ditch driving back to Syracuse because the intensity of the snow that day and the treacherousness of the road underneath the snow was unexpected. The car that helped me move back to NH, and then finally to Florida where I expected that she would probably find retirement.
Well this trip I knew she was hurt. When I left from Florida, she was already 1,000 miles overdue for an oil change, and she had a check engine light that had been triggered about 7 months earlier which never wanted to shut off no matter how many times I had her checked out. She had a new catalytic converter put on about 6 months earlier and as it turned out Midas did a slapshod job which turns out to cause more harm than good. Her protective plates covering the gas tank were falling off, and the entire exhaust system needed to be replaced. I can only say that she had seen better days. The only time she sounded or acted like her old self was after I got her back to NH. Maybe it was the familiar environment, maybe it was the cooler weather, or maybe it was that she, like me, knew that Florida was not the place to stay. Whatever the reasons she just seemed to like NH better. I could tell right away when her alarm system started to function again. It was the damnedest thing, for nearly 1 year the alarm system could lock and unlock the door, but refused to make a sound, and would not disable the engine if the alarm was triggered. One day after getting back to NH I heard a sound that I hadn't heard in a long time, the "chirp chirp" that she made when I would push the unlock button. To put it bluntly I was shocked. I brought her to my mechanic and he gave her the once over, unfortunately the prognosis was grim. He said that the Cat-converter under the hood was leaking and that it would have to be replaced, and because of the crap-tacular job Midas did on my other Cat-converter it appeared that it too was damaged due to poor installation, and would have to be replaced along with the rest of the exhaust system. In my head it seemed like he was explaining this to me the same way that a doctor explains to a family that the relative that is in intensive care has little to no hope, and that if I hadn't thought of making arrangements then I should probably do so now.
So I took her back to my place, explained the situation to my folks and they said that I should go car shopping over the next 2 days.
To cut a long story short, the dealer at the Honda Barn in Stratham didn't know what the hell he was doing, I started looking at a Civic with a bunch of options that I wanted, an electric moon roof being the highlighted feature that I was explicit about having on the car. So after test driving one and realizing that I was too big for a Civic... by too big I mean that when sitting in the seat my head was less than 1 inch from grazing the roof. I hit a small bump and realized that had it been a bigger bump my head would have gone through the moon roof. So the Civic was out. I asked the dealer if there was anything else he could show me that had the features that I wanted, and so he took me to the other end of the lot and low and behold, he shows me ... another Civic. Apparently he didn't understand. I mentioned that I didn't think the Civic would work, and that I wanted to see a Sporty car that was a little bigger. Again he must not have heard me because he redirected me to the Civic he wanted to show me. He kept talking it up like it was the greatest thing in the world, he said it would have plenty of room for travel, and it would be a great value being that it was a Honda, and it was a 2005. So as we got to the Civic I noticed a few things.
#1) It was the same size as the last one that I test drove
#2) It had regular hubcaps instead of the Alloy Wheels that I was checking out on the first one.
#3) There was no moon roof or sun roof.
#4) It was the most generic Civic I had ever seen. No features that stood out at all!
So I reiterate to the dealer what I wanted in features, and what I was looking for in a car. He said he would see what he had. After returning he said that he didn't have much in the used options that would meet the specs that I was looking for, and that if I was interested he would give me a quote on the Civics. At this point I just wanted to leave and so I told him to give me the quote so I have a comparison to the other car that I was looking at (a 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse). So he wrote up the quote and said that if I wanted to buy the 05 Civic he would give me nearly 5K for my car in its current condition, and if I wanted to 04 Civic (with all the features that I wanted) he would only be able to give me 1K for my car. Well I was tired of him pushing the no frills Civic and said that I had a few other places to check out before I would decide.
So I finally got to the dealership where I bought my first 2 cars (the ill fated Concorde, and the Camry that I was now almost 2K miles over due for an oil change on, and should have been in intensive care). The only thing is, they were no longer there! They had only been in this dealership for about 7 years and now it was a shell of a building. Needless to say I was not thrilled, but I did manage to find a sign that said "we have moved". So I drive home jump on their website and find that they still have the same address I had just checked. So looked up their number and gave them a call and much to my relief they had kept the same phone number. They gave me the new address and I drove right over. It looks like they had only moved within the last week as everything was laying around everywhere. They had just started paving the parking lot, and all of their cars were in a giant cluster-f$@k in the back. So I went to the back of the building and started looking around. A dealer came out and began asking me about what I was looking for, and when I gave him my specs he said "Oh look, I'm sorry I was helping these other customers, and it appears they need more help, let me get other dealer to help you out." Which I belive translates into "So you don't plan on leasing a new car, or buying one that is going to be more than 15K, I have no interest in wasting my time with you so I'll pass you off on someone unsuspecting sap that could care less about the commission on this sale." So I walked away not seeing anything that I could keep within my price range that could even compare with what I was already driving. As I almost got to the end of the row, I suddenly saw a car that I didn't see in the lot earlier. I walked over expecting to see a 25K price sticker on it and I was surprised when it was much less. So I checked it out a little closer, and it looked like a nice car. So when the dealer came back to me he said, "Did you find something you have a question about?" and I replied, "Yes, I'm going to find someone that is interested in helping me." Feeling put off he said, "Well I guess I can go with you into the store and see if there is someone else willing to help, if you have any questions otherwise let me know maybe I can help you if no one else can." Well as it turns out the lady that sold me the first 2 cars was still working there, and I approached her and said "There is a car in your lot, this is what I can afford, here is what I have to trade, and I don't care how you make it work, I plan to drive away with this car before the end of the week."
I'll skip past the negotiations and the haggling, and to cut this already long story a little shorter, we worked it out. I signed the papers, and on Thursday I drove my Camry for the last time. I had already cleaned most of her out, and the last few things that I had to do was to remove the stereo and the amps. After taking everything out I made the final arrangements, signed the documents, and drove away in my new Solara. Its strange to think that an inanimate object can make you feel bad as you leave it behind, but as I drove off the Camry finally seemed relaxed, sort of at peace, almost as if it were saying, thanks for the good times, and thanks for not leaving me in Florida.

"The Wolf" Camry 1996 -2007 (the original Wolf)