My mother calls him Henry. Good old reliable Henry. My father says it's the only car he ever bought that gets better gas mileage than was advertised. These are my parents, who rarely keep a car for more than four years. They don't like dealing with the repairs that build up when a car gets older and is no longer under warranty, and they like to trade cars in while they're still worth something.

After 7 years, we still have Henry. He's been my dad's car, and my grandma's, and was finally passed down to me. I was supposed to get a racy new PT cruiser, instead I got the car that looks like the one Mazda commercials show people falling asleep in. I love it.

Henry's a 2000 Camry, silver, automatic, with cloth seats, air conditioning, power windows, and a CD player. Henry's been through all the trials a first car gets put through--having to accelerate like a god to avoid a near accident, getting bashed in the passenger side in one I didn't have enough knowledge to avoid, and icy winters in the mid-west (did I mention he's got anti-lock breaks that have saved my neck many times?).

Now I'm in college. My dad promised me a new car when I graduated high school if I didn't start smoking and I maintained a 3.5 GPA. I fulfilled those requirements, but found myself begging him not to get me a new car come May of my senior year. Why? Henry's perfect. While he's not a racy sports car, and I lovingly refer to him as "the most ordinary car in America," his ordinary appearance, in my opinion, makes him much less likely to be stolen or broken into than the red convertible that others my age lust over. And I know that my Camry is far from ordinary. It's the little things that make this car great. The lights turn on automatically when it gets dark, and turn off when you turn the car off and open the driver's side door. If you attempt to lock your keys in the car while it's running (say you're stopping by your house to pick something up, leave the car on, and press the lock button as you get out of the door), the car will unlock when you close the door. The brights, as my friends point out, are actually bright enough to be helpful, and the ABS has saved me from black ice on several winter nights. On top of this, my car always starts,and never fails to get me up the hill that is my street, and, although it's over 500 miles to get home from college, I can trust that Henry will get me there as many times as I need to go without a problem. While my friends are finding that the cheap used cars they got when they turned 16 will no longer get them from point A to point B, I can trust that my Camry will continue to serve my every need for many years to come.


Amount Paid (US$): 20000
Condition: New
Model Year: 2000
Model and Options: LE, Automatic, CD player, air conditioning, power windows, power seats