The Metro

My girlfriend, and a few other of my friends, call my car The Metro, as if it was the only one in the world, which I know its not. But, I'm pretty sure its the only one in the world thats lost all four of its hubcaps while in motion. Not all at once, although that would be impressive. No, they've fallen off one by one, usually when I race around a turn at speeds Metros arent supposed to do around corners. I know this because I saw the first one fall off.

Back when I lived in Cary I spent way too much time at Cary Towne Center. It was between work and home and I enjoyed many of the shops there. Speeding through the parking lot was always fun, as it was relatively deserted. Long sweeping curves around the backside of Cary Towne center were always a fun place to open my car up (40MPH! back off MF! woo-hoo). One day while exiting a swooping curve I saw something roll in front of my car that was round, plastic and going faster then the car. Neat, I thought, then, Fuck!?!, was that mine?

I got confirmation that I had lost a hubcap when home and found my car was missing one. I never saw the other 3 fall off the car, but it only took an additional 9 months for me to lose them all and the Metro's been that way ever since.

Now seven years later, the Metro (who I call Polly) passed the 100,000 mile mark and is doing fine. It makes many noises, the hatch refuses to stay up, the heat has only two settings [very high & volcanic] and the dome light is always on; but other than that its in good shape. It still gets 35+ miles to the gallon and continues to get me from home to work & back, which is all I need it to do.

I looked into replacing the hubcaps for Polly, but since she's got such odd sized wheels, the hubcaps would cost about half what the tires do. $50 for the 4 hubcaps, $120 for 4 tires, and I refuse to replace them as I will just fling them off my car eventually.

So, here's to you Polly, the best car I ever had. May you continue to shuttle me around.

listening to: The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society