by Tracey Lloyd

Created on: July 01, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

My first car - well looking it back on it now it's possibly one of the largest jokes in my family :)

We've always had problems with cars - at one time my sister-in-law described our backyard as the graveyard since if a car went in there it didn't stand much chance of coming out again. I was determined to be different when I got my first car - it was going to perfect, serviced regularly, run like clockwork.

Okay so I turn 18 and I'm ready to buy a car, a girl I was working with was ready to upgrade her car. We were working at a small family-oriented law firm and everything thought perfect, Bec can buy a new car and Tracey can buy Bec's old car (a white 1985 Nissan Pulsar hatchback with blue seats and interior). As it happened our boss' brother was a bank manager so finance was easy to sort out.

Bec brought her car in and I got to drive it home. This was the first time I had ever driven the car and I had to drive through peak hour traffic. No problems I sailed home. I started driving everywhere and every morning I'd check the car and wash her off with the hosepipe (I think I named her Clara but I can't remember now).

Everything was going well then my life hit some problems with neighbours. I was afraid to leave the house for a while but finally one day I got my confidence back and decided to go for a drive. I drove around all of my old childhood haunts and then suddenly BOOM! I'd crossed through an intersection on the crest of a hill and four wheel drive had crashed into my side. My car went across the road and mounted the kerb, just missing an electricity pylon and a six foot drop into an old folks home. I got out of my car crying and the other guy came over ranting and raving. The police were called and it was deemed my fault because I should have given way. I vividly remember the police officer telling me "don't worry it'll just be like you're getting a fine for going through a stop sign". Yeah right - I was summonsed to appear in court and fined $300 for driving without due care and attention. Six weeks after buying it, the car was written off since I'd damaged the fire wall and various other parts of the front driver's side and the panelbeater told me that even using non-genuine parts it was going to cost more than the $4,000 I'd spent buying the car to fix it.

But the very worst thing was that I had the accident over the Easter long weekend, which in 1997 fell at the end of March. I had to go in to work on April Fool's Day and tell my colleagues and the girl I'd bought the car from, that I'd had an accident and written the car off. Unsurprisingly they didn't believe me and had a go at me for trying to get an April Fool's joke over them. It wasn't until I called the panelbeater to get an estimate of the damage that they believed me and then felt bad for me (and for Bec).

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