Honoring the clunkers!

Welcome to the newest member of our little family... a 1985 Mercedes Benz. Geoff and Justin spent the morning cleaning, gluing, adjusting, restoring, etc our "new" old car. SOPHIE (Her previous Owner named her, and the name stuck, not to mention it is monogrammed into the floor mats) is in amazing condition considering her age and use...over 300,000 miles! We are especially excited about having this car as she runs mostly on recycled vegetable oil. The best part is being able to drive right past the gas station without getting discouraged with the ever increasing cost of gasoline! Now, Geoff just smiles. She is a cute little car. We all like her a lot.

Here is a picture of the vegetable oil tank in the trunk. She begins with diesel fuel, and then transfers to veggie oil after the motor warms up.
We all wanted to go on a ride with Sophie, and enjoy a Sunday drive through our future neighborhood in Hidden Springs. It's a fun little car and it really is a neat feeling to know that you can go as long as you want without the $$ adding up!! Justin informed us today that he doesn't like the MDX any more and would like to have the car seats permanently moved into Sophie.

Justin's excitement of getting a "new" car reminds me of the time my Dad brought home a REALLY OLD and beat up 1981 Pontiac Bonneville. The seats were a plush and baby blue and the front seat was a bench seat which meant we could sit in front with mom and dad. I can remember thinking we had the coolest car in the world.
Much like our beloved 1978 Datsun 510 Station wagon that our family drove until its dying day. Believe it or not, we drove with 11 people in this car from Salt Lake City to Kirtland, New Mexico; and I am still alive to tell about it! I first learned to drive in this car, and did my best "Dukes of Hazard" stunts in this little baby! I still shed a tear with the memory of taking it to the junk yard! We had so much fun in this car!
The scary part of remembering the old "beaters" that we drove growing up, is that Sophie comes from this same generation of cars as these! YIKES!