Do you feel rich in your car?

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, survived Black Friday and are in a festive state of mind. Today I have cars on my mind. First, because after 13 years of going in and out of my garage I managed to catch my passenger side mirror on the garage and the result wasn't pretty. Luckily my friends at Lewisville Motors hooked me up with a replacement. Only problem is that it is black and my car is white. Now we get to see just how good my mechanic is.

The other reason I have cars on my mind is that I am currently reading Dr. Thomas J. Stanley's latest book "Stop Acting Rich...And Start Living Like A Real Millionaire". He also wrote "The Millionaire Next Door" and "The Millionaire Mind". All of his books dispel the myths the marketing gurus have sold us on how the rich live and spend. If you get a chance to read any of these it will have you looking at your neighbors very differently. You may be hanging out in millionaire circles and not know it.

One of his chapters asks whether people driving BMW's are happier than people driving Toyotas. Ok, disregard the recent issues that Toyota has had and just stay with me for a minute. In his research there was only a .05 difference between the two. This kind of got my mind thinking about all my cars over the years and if any of them made me feel more successful or prettier or tougher. Let me just state for the record that I only really see cars as a necessity of life and often a royal pain to maintain so I may not be the best person to be pondering this idea.

My first car was a '67 Cutlass when I was 16. It was definitely my door to freedom but that was about it. Almost every morning I had to open up the hood, unstick some thingy to keep it from expelling clouds of black smoke. It was a far cry from the then popular Camaros, Trans AMs (is that how it was spelled?) and Mustangs. After that was my Chevette. Ok, you can stop laughing now. It got me through college...even up mountains and I managed to get a speeding ticket going downhill. Then there was the Buick Regal. It has the distinction of being the biggest lemon I ever owned. The Bronco was the first manual car I learned to drive. It was fun. Not pretty, but fun. The Big Blue Jeep was ok, but I did really like my Jeep Grand Cherokee. Terrible on gas, but I liked driving it. The Town and Country Mini Van...petrified french fries from countless Happy Meals stuck permanently to the carpet. To it's credit, the mini van went to the great junk yard with 258,000 miles on it.

My current car is a 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix. I like it. It's a little sporty (anything is after you drive the mini van as long as I did) and has some "git up and go" when I need it. The CD player doesn't work which was a disappointment. There is one thing that makes me feel rich in this car though. Something I have never had in a car before. A SEAT WARMER!! It's only on the driver's side which makes me feel special. I hate cold weather. Anything below 60 degrees has me layering on sweaters. I am miserable from November to May. My life is soooooo much better when I can get in my car on a nasty cold wet winter day and turn the warmer on HIGH. What a wonderful luxury. From now on I don't care if I drive a Porsche or another Chevette, my only real requirement will be that it has a SEAT WARMER!!!

Have a great weekend and stay warm,
Christel