Behind The Wheel Of Mid Sized Automobile

Over the weekend my car was finally put out to pasture after a long losing battle with obsolescence. After saving my pennies for a year to put together enough for a down payment, my wife and I paid our money, signed on the dotted line and for the first time in a long while, I drove off in a car that I felt confident would make it all the way home.

As I drove off the lot I reached for the radio but I stopped myself before turning it on. What if there was a crappy song on the radio, there most likely would be and I couldn't have the first song played in my new car be something lousy. I believe that it's important to immediately set the tone for a car with good music. Every year there are millions of people who buy cars and just turn on the radio, these people then have to live with the fact that they had little say about the first song played in their car; it could be Rick Astley or Nickelback...this severely reduces the cars value and starts the car off on the wrong note (pun intended) unless you happen to be Rick Astley or in Nickelback. Not wanting to risk hearing a crappy song I drove home listening only to the very quiet engine and the road beneath me; music would have to wait until the next morning.

On Sunday morning I went out to my old car, took all of the CD's out placed them in the new car. I thought about every car I've ever owned and the first song I played in each one, yes I remember them all:

1) 1978 Pontiac Grand Prix (purchased in 1993) - Husker Du - New Day Rising

2) 1988 Plymouth Sundance - (1994) Hank Williams - Move it On Over

3) 1980 Buick Regal (1998) I drove this car for two months it had no radio

4) 1987 Mitsubishi Mirage (1998) Johnny Cash- Rusty Cage (This was the only time I ever relied on the radio for the first song, it was a chilly fall night on Long Island and I turned on the station from Hofstra University, WRHU and Rusty Cage was on. That is good luck)

5) 1985 Audi 5000 (1999) Drove this for 4 months with no radio

6) 1990 Volkswagen Jetta - Yo La Tengo - Too Late (I had gone with my then girlfriend to buy this car and I took the CD out of her car to play in my new one on the drive home)

7) 1996 Hyundai Elantra (2002) The Replacements - Bastards of Young

8) 2008 Nissan Sentra (2008) New York Dolls - Trash* - After transferring Cd's from my old car I blindly reached into the stack and pulled out The New York Dolls - Rock and Roll, this was truly just chance but had I pulled out something different might have put it back. The Dolls feel right for a first song in my new car. New car good mojo mission accomplished.

*For the record The title of the song in no way reflects the quality of the car.



New York Dolls- Trash