My Knights in Shiny Armour

WHO ARE THEM? My cars of course. They were the ones who took me everywhere and protected me from the rough conditions outside. They took me to work everyday and patiently waited for me to get back to them.

Coming of Driving Age. Got my license at 16 and hogged Dad's brand new Plymouth station wagon like it was mine. I wrecked it of course like most young new drivers. Dad was a good sport. He didn't scream when he saw his smashed car. He just calmly told me that "It's too late when you say OOPS." You know, it really hit home and I still remember his words.

My First Knight: a white 1984 Mercury Lynx. I got it all by myself. A basic entry-level car that had manual window cranks, no AC and no clock. In our earlier years, RK and I didn't get to see each other much, but he would loop by to where I parked when he had a chance to leave a love note on my windshield. I still have the notes.

My Second Knight: a black 1987 Merkur XR4Ti. A what? Yap, not a lot of people knew about it. It was a Ford car that was made in Germany. It was a nice turbo charged car that could really run. It was love at first sight. I took the Lynx to the dealer for service and I ended up trading it for the Merkur the same day. Dad and Mom couldn't believe it. Out the door with a white car and back with a black one. I had the Merkur for a good 10 years. It was good to me. I was very happy that I sold it to a person who was specifically looking for a Merkur XR4Ti believe it or not. The guy was from Germany and he had owned couple of this car in different colors. He said he had been looking for a black XR4Ti in the U.S. but had a hard time finding one. Fate would have it that he found mine by searching "black Merkur XR4Ti" on Yahoo (this was back when Yahoo had a free posting space like craigslist) on the first day of the post. He bought the car the same day. Wow!

My Third Knight: a black1996 BMW 318IS. When I finally decided to get another car, RK and I had discussed whether I should get a cheaper new car or a better used car for the same price. I got my little beemer in 1998. So it was used, but you couldn't tell. It only had 10,000 miles and it was in storage for 12 out of the first 24 months so it was in mint condition. I knew it was mine because its license plate number was 3STW361. See my initials??? Wasn't that cool? The beemer was with me for another 10 years and it never disappointed me.

My Current Knight: a black 2007 Jeep Wrangler. I already told the story of my childhood dream of driving a Jeep so I won't repeat. Check out my blog post from April 2009 for this little guy's story. So far, I'm loving it. The Merkur had power-everything, a clock but no cup holders. The beemer had power-everything, a cup holder but no CD player. The Jeep has everything and it will be with me for another 10 years.

So, here you have it, story of my knights. You like it? Notice that all but my first car was black? It's a pain washing car though because I can't get it to look shiny black. But, no fears, RK is a good car washer. I'm a lucky girl!

I'm glad that I took the time to write about my cars because they are part of my life. Couldn't image life without them. THANK YOU, MY KNIGHTS!!

A Little Victory for the Day

A TALKING JEEP WRANGLER. Little do I know that cars of nowadays are totally computerized. For the past 12 years, I have zipped up and down in my littler basic hardy bimmer and never have to pay attention to this kind of stuff. Then come along this little Jeep telling me what to do.

One chime here if I didn't do this; one blinking indicator light there if I did that. The instrument panel has about a dozen different colorful icons with dinging sounds. It's kind of hard to read them all when they light up at start up.

So I finally solved the ESP problem. Well, it wasn't a problem. The Jeep was just thinking hard. The service people finally had to re-flash the chip -- kind of like zapping the brain -- so everything is back to normal now, until...

CLICK! YOU'RE NOW LOCKED IN. I was tickled pink when I discovered that my Jeep automatically locks the doors when I start driving. How cool is that? I know it's nothing new but I never had it before. But there is always a downside with things being so automatic. You get used to it, then you get lost when it stops working. Yap, my Jeep decided that it didn't want to auto-lock the doors anymore all of a sudden. I just can't figure out what happened. I've done nothing. Why? Why? Why? Not that I miss it, but it WAS there.

INQUIRING MIND WANTS TO KNOW. I've been googling these couple of nights. I'm determined to find out what the heck is going on. I thought it may have to do with the chip re-flashing. If so, then it would have been a programming issue not a part failure (so I hope). After couple of nights of searching, I'm happy to learn that it's a program issue, and there are plenty of people out there with the same issue!

It was amazing to learn that owners can actually program their cars nowadays. Click here. Switch there. For example, I can reprogram the Jeep to auto-lock at 15mph and auto-unlock all doors or not all doors. I can even program it to shut up or not to beam light like a beacon. Wow!

I tried for couple of days following the programming sequences but there are couple of variations on the Internet. I tried them all but none seemed to work. Heck, I even tried my own combination of buttons and timing of button pushing. None to avail. The funny thing is you don't know if you're programming it to enable or disable the function because it's the same sequence for both! So, I would go through the sequence, then drive it to test it. It was quite amusing. Well, nothing worked.

Not giving up, I gave it another shot this afternoon. I picked this variation of the sequence: cycle the key from Lock to On 4 times and leave it at the Lock position at the end of the 4th cycle and click the power lock downward once. A wonderful chime came on, Voila! It worked this time.

What a great feeling of conquering! Small, insignificant but it made my day. :)

For Jeep Wrangler owners: check out the JK-Forum. Great place to learn about the talking Wrangler.

Now, I am ready to have serious fun!!

Follow Me , Little Bad Luck

Recalled that I'm the queen of bad-luck-come-in-three's (or fours)... Yes, I still have the little ones following me like little ducklings following whatever they were imprinted on first. Just great, isn't it? Why can't little $$$ follow me instead?

Here's my latest: great Wrangler but with a ESP indicator light eternally on. Brought it to the dealer since it's still under full warranty. They had to order the ESP switch the first time. Light still on after replacement. Now they said another part has to be ordered. I'm still waiting two weeks later. How can it be for an American car?? Oh ya, I forgot it's Chrysler and Chrysler is rumored to go under. Here's more... when the guys opened up the panel the second time, they also disconnected something so now my AC doesn't work along with the light on the fan cluster panel. So now 3 things that I need to remember to get fixed. Then this morning I discovered a nail in my right rear tire so I have a slow leak. I'm getting it fixed this afternoon. Knowing my luck, I probably have a bad leak. *sigh*

OK, people, how do I tell my little bad luck duckies to go away? All advice welcome!

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

My Little Dream Came True

Ever since I was a teenager, I always dreamed of owning a Jeep Wrangler. Yes, a convertible Jeep sparkling under the bright sun. Me driving and a dog sitting next to me and together coasting down along a scenic road…. Ahhh…doesn’t that sound just cool... Every time I start my little daydreaming, RK would ask why a dog and not him. Well… I got this dream way before I met you, babe.

Unexpectedly, my dream came true two weeks ago. I was browsing through craigslist, and this perfect Wrangler popped up. It was exactly the one I wanted: a hardtop, black-on-black Sahara. Yes, I was very particular with the one I want. No 4-door, no soft-top, no dual color tone and it has to be an automatic….

RK and I went to check it out up in Petaluma. It was a 2007 beauty with 9,743 miles. One look and I knew it was mine.

We had a gorgeous weekend and I took the top down for the very first time. Dexter got in, poked his head out the top. We posed for the camera. RK said we were too color-coordinated. Well, I guess it was meant to be.