Matt’s Car

“Hey, Dad, how come the car’s not on the blog?”

Matt’s right, how come the car isn’t on the blog? Is it because it’s a Lexus?

I’ve always worried about Matt driving Diane’s old airbag-less Mazda. Yeah, we grew up without bags and soft dashboards and crumple zones, and for a while non-tempered windshield glass (or was that before my time?), and many of us survived. Still, driving without airbags feels to me like walking into battle without a flak jacket. If you get shot in the face, so be it, at least you tried to protect yourself.

Sometime in April we told Matt we’d buy him a car as long at it didn’t cost more than ten grand. I’m not sure what make I thought he’d focus on, but I admit to some surprise when he narrowed his choices down to BMW and Lexus. I vetoed the BMW because for that money he’d be buying an older rear wheel drive car. Not in New England, I said. Then he found his dream car on autotrader.com. A 1998 Lexus ES 300 with 74,000 miles.

I said, it’s too old. He said it’s in perfect condition. I asked why a small dearlership in Lawrence? He said because they’re good people. I said keep looking. He said he’d take me to Lawrence, to Michael’s Motors and prove me wrong. We went, he did, and now he has the nicest car in the family. The nicest car this family has ever had.

As an aside, I’ve never bought a car without feeling like I was ripped off. I bought my truck after 9-11, after the dealer lowered the price twice after he finally asked me what I was willing to pay, and I still felt like I’d been screwed. With Matt’s car, after meeting Sean and his dad, Michael, and seeing that Lexus in my yard for the last three weeks, I feel good and clean and unviolated. In fact, I feel nothing but pride in my smart son’s smart choice.