Saab
When I moved to Austin to start my full-time job, I also needed to buy a car. NVIDIA's relocation policy is pretty decent, and as a result, I had a free rental car for two weeks. Because I knew ahead of time that I needed to act fast, I had already started researching cars. The make wasn't hard to decide on--I had already decided over a decade ago: when our family was in Sweden, my parents were graduate students, and as such, there was no way we could afford a car. My mom and I used to walk or take public transportation everywhere, but there would be times when we'd talk about cars (that we didn't have). I secretly made a promise to myself that I'd one day get a Saab, so I'd never have to talk about not having one anymore.
Well that day came on July 24th, 2009, when I signed the title for a black 2000 Saab 9-3.
The sad thing was, I couldn't even drive it right because it had a manual transmission. I had tried to learn during our vacation in China just a month before (my cousin tried to teach me, but I had mixed success), but I just wasn't ready. I didn't even test drive the car, but instead trusted the judgment of an inspection at Swedish Auto Service, who specializes in Saab and Volvo services. (For more about my interest in manual transmission, see this page.)
But let's overlook that little technical problem and get back to this sentimental story.
So yeah, now I've fulfilled one of my childhood dreams and I love my car. It's by no means perfect, but another interest I've harbored for a while is in auto repair. I had these wacky thoughts of attending vocational school while being full-time employed, but that's of course not realistic. Consequently, I settled on buying the bible of automotive education, Jack Erjavec's Automotive Technology: A Systems Approach. This beast is over a thousand pages (more than any textbook I've had in school! -- though that might be because CS and math textbooks get shorter as they get more advanced) and I'm planning on going through it cover to cover. I figure if I can get through four shorter textbooks cover to cover in a semester (yes, that's actually how I study--reading textbooks cover to cover), then this single book with lots of pictures will be easy. Long term, I plan on doing most of the servicing and repairs by myself that don't require heavy machinery.
My next car will also likely be a Saab. They're pretty expensive new, and GM totally ruined Saab until about 2007 when they started getting their act together, so that doesn't leave many options, besides the one where my current car lasts me for a long, long time. Yet now that Saab has been bought back and is Swedish once again, I have high hopes for newer generations, so who knows--maybe I'll end up getting a new one sooner rather than later.
And yes, I wave at every Saab that I see on the road.
And yes, I get excited when I park next to another Saab.
And no, that feeling is probably not mutual. They probably just think I'm creepy.
