Cars

My car is in the shop today, not for work on the car itself, but for repair on my Chair Topper. For those who don’t know what a Chair Topper is, a little explanation – it’s a box that sits on top of the car, looks like a big white hamburger box. When you push a toggle switch on a telephone cord attached to the dash, it cracks open. Out slides a flat plate towards the driver side of the car. When it has opened about 2 ½ or 3 feet, the plate flips from horizontal to vertical, and a giant bicycle chain lowers a giant bobby pin down on the outside of the car to chair level. I slide the bobby pin under the seat of my folded chair and everything happens in reverse. The chair raises up till it gets to the top, and then flips so that it rests on the plate and then slides into the cozy but rather unsexy box.

These Chair Toppers have been around since the mid 1980s, a pretty low tech device actually, though almost every time I go out I have a lot of onlookers who oooh and aaah. I have had one since 2004, and compared to other adapted vehicles I’ve had, it’s given me relatively little trouble. It isn’t for everyone though. I have to take my chair apart and put foot pedals and arms on the front seat, which requires good use of your arms. And I transfer into the driver’s seat, so someone who needs to drive from their chair won’t want this device. Anyone a little stronger than me can probably do without, and just pull their chair into the car behind the driver’s seat. So, the Chair Topper satisfies a rather small market.

Last Saturday I thought my Chair Topper seemed to be making some clangy noises, even though it was working well enough. I took a look at the full cycle, from outside the car sitting in my wheelchair, and could see a spring banging around not attached to anything. So, Jim and I took my car to the service place I usually go to, and put my key and a note into their night drop box to be looked at on Monday, today.

Called at 10:15 AM – they hadn’t looked at the car, but the woman assured me she had written up the ticket for it, but couldn’t promise that anyone would look at it today – they had a busy schedule. I pushed to say that I really wanted it back today, and she said she’d look into it.

There are very few places, even in a city as big as San Diego, that can do service on adapted vehicles. There’s this one in Kearny Mesa, one in Poway and one in National City (for all the local folk who know these places.) If there are more, I don’t know about them. I go to this place because it is convenient, though the service is spotty. Sometimes if I go in with some small problem, they take the time to get me back on the road quickly and won’t charge me. Other times they hold the car forever and then don’t seem to fix it. I’ve heard horror stories about problems with vans there, but luckily I haven’t had anything seriously wrong with any service I’ve had. My biggest problem is that they can be slow to respond, especially if you aren’t sitting there waiting for your car.

4:15 the service department called back to say that yes indeed a spring had broken, and they did a temporary fix, enough to get me on the road. A new spring had to be ordered and it would be either 2 days (if the part comes from Arizona) or 4 days (from the east coast) till the part will arrive. And then we’ll schedule a day for the repair. Today, no other service was performed, so no charge. I had asked them to check over the whole system and the hand controls while they were at it. All this is fine, assuming that next Monday, or whenever they replace the spring, that they don’t find some other part needing replacing when they do the service. Then they’ll order that part, and it goes on and on. And each time, I’m either out a car for the day, or I’m sitting there waiting 3 hours for the work to be done. Just like any other repair work really, except that I have to go to one place for the car and another for the extra equipment. So, now I’m home. Later after dinner Jim and I will go get my car. They put it in the parking lot, and I have a spare key.

But this has made me think about cars in general today. I can count the number of cars I’ve driven in my life on my fingers. I bet most people over the age of 25 can’t do that. Possibly a lot of people under 25 too.

First was the driver instructor’s car. Then my parents had 2 cars with hand controls – a Chevy II wagon and an AMC Hornet. Within my first year of driving I had my first car accident and totaled the Chevy. Not MY fault! It was my car’s fault, not totally mine. For some reason the power died on the car, and without power to the brakes, I couldn’t stop the car even though it was only coasting. So, we coasted into a couple of cars waiting at a stop light. Seat belts in those days were not retractable, so I couldn’t reach the emergency brake, and I didn’t know to throw the car into Park (that’s where my fault comes in). Live and learn. I never loaded my own chair into any of these vehicles. If I was going out somewhere, someone at home would put my chair into the back of the wagon, then whichever friend I was going out with would take it out later for me.

The next car I drove was the first one I owned myself, a 1975 (bought when 4 years old) navy Volvo 164E with sunroof and heated seats! Pure luxury. My first husband and I drove it across the country in 1979. I learned to load my chair onto the front seat of the car out of necessity, on the day he took off on a plane for a few months’ trip back to Sri Lanka. I can still remember that day clearly. We had put a pulley up onto the hand hold on the passenger side for me to use to winch the chair up. I attached the hook and rope to the chair and it floundered about, so my brain said “to hell with this”, and I yanked it up onto the passenger seat without the pulley. Took all my strength that time, but eventually I figured out the best way to pull so I could roll it over the side of the car and not really lift. I finally had to do it, so I did.

Vehicle #5 was a van with a lift, bought in 1985 or 86 when David was about a year old. I had been lifting him into a car seat on the back seat, and he was getting too heavy for me. Plus we wanted another child, and there was no room in the car for me to transport 2 kids. To put the chair on the front seat I had to lean it back, so the back seat behind it was not useable. This Ford Club Wagon served me well for 11 years, truly a work horse.

I replaced it with a mini van, Plymouth Voyager, with a ramp, that I hated almost from the day I got it. I should have gotten rid of it after 2 years when I knew it was never going to work out, but stuck with it for 4. The less said, the better – but I had trouble with everything that could go wrong with the adapted equipment, not with the car. So, in 2000 I went back to a big Ford Van, similar to the one I had before.

Which brings me to my Toyota Avalon, which is by far the most fun for me to drive, most comfortable, and I’m hoping it will last forever. In 2004 I was going back and forth between coasts, to spend time with Jim, but really live in Maryland till Stephen finished high school. I had my van in Maryland, so we bought me the Toyota for San Diego. After we married later that year I had 2 vehicles for a while till I decided which type I preferred. I sold the van the next year, and haven’t regretted it. But the van was a decent vehicle, and I hope someone else is still enjoying it.

That’s 7 vehicles only so far. I’ve also driven a total of 3 rental vehicles in my life. Once was when we moved to Ohio, and my van, which was being shipped, wouldn’t arrive for a week. Then later when Jim was living in San Diego, and I was still living in Maryland and we were doing our coast to coast thing – I rented vehicles here each time for a week. Twice these were big vans, once was a mini-van. Renting adapted vehicles isn’t hard, but does need well-in-advance reservations, and is costly. You can rent ordinary cars from Avis and Hertz (probably others too) which they’ll put hand controls on with one days’ notice, but I’m afraid to. Their hand controls don’t work quite the same way as mine. I push to brake, and pull downward to accelerate. The rental cars pull to brake and push to accelerate. I might be ok with no other cars on the road, but in an emergency I’d probably panic and slam the handle forward – and end up right in an accident.

Jim asked me not long ago, that if I could have my pick of any car in the world to drive, not having to worry about whether my chair would fit in the trunk and all the other things I had to keep in mind for the hand controls and Chair Topper to work, what would I pick? So hard to say! I’ve driven precisely 5 cars, 3 vans and 2 minivans, not much experience. I found I’d be picking a car for its looks only. I used to dream of driving a VW Beetle, and even now I think they are cute, ditto the Mini Cooper. I like the tail lights of the Subaru Outback Impreza with the red bar all the way across, and the tail lights of the Volvos are kinda cool. If I’m looking at the fronts, I have to admit that the BMWs have a nice look.

Honestly, what is it like to drive sporty cars, convertibles, fast cars that corner well, low riders or high SUVs, little cute ones or ones with good gas mileage? I’d like to try out a Prius, and other hybrids. That would feel like a good thing to do. It’d be sort of like dating a lot before settling down with the right man. I have the right man (both my car and my man) now but it might have been nice to play around a bit first. For me, I have to buy the car first, then spend a bunch of money on it and make it unreturnable, then TEST drive it.

I hope my Avalon lasts a good long time. No recalls on this one, yet, knock on wood. I fully expect that at some time my shoulders will complain about lifting the odd parts in on the front seat, and then I’ll have to consider going back to a big van, or being brave with a mini-van. I’m told they are much improved since 1996.

So, that’s what my car history is like – 36 years, 10 vehicles. I’m lucky though, I’ve always had at least one car to drive and never had to rely on public transportation alone to get around. Each vehicle had 2 repair shops, and the adaptive equipment generally causes more down time than the vehicle itself.