
All Things Come to an End. Even My 2001 Saturn - samclemens
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/opinion/sunday/all-things-come-to-an-end-even-my-2001-saturn.html
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Nr7
In several European countries there are mandatory yearly checks for (old) cars
and if your car doesn't pass you are not allowed to drive it until it's fixed.
It would be interesting to see if the lack of checks in the US actually causes
significantly more traffic accidents and/or more severe accidents.

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PhantomGremlin
I had cognitive dissonance trying to understand the POV of the author. No
emergency brake? Bucking the driver's seatbelt into the passenger belt buckle?
Seriously?

The person does write novels, so maybe there's a little bit of hyperbole?
Because I just can't grok driving without a functioning seat belt!

~~~
iamben
Yup, same here. I thought it actually read pretty recklessly. Nostalgia is one
thing, nostalgia to the point of danger is another thing altogether.

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nkoren
I'm still vaguely sentimental about my old Saturn, which died in 2002. Saturns
had a reputation for being the safest cars of their day, and mine certainly
proved that to me. My wife and I were driving on a fast stretch of highway
east of Santa Fe -- where going less than 90mph would get you rear-ended --
when the tire blew out. The car began to drift and then started pinwheeling
against a guardrail, disassembling itself almost gracefully. A few seconds
later we was resting in the median. The front and rear of the car were mostly
gone, but the passenger cabin was fully intact. We were completely unharmed
and mostly unruffled. My first words were something to the effect of "nice
car".

I'll always be grateful to the Saturn engineers who saved our lives that day.
Thanks, guys!

~~~
wefarrell
I owned my tiny 2001 sc1 for only a month before I had my accident. There were
wet leaves on the road and a Honda Pilot coming the other way lost control and
swerved into my side of the road, hitting me head on. I don't know if I'll
ever experience anything as terrifying as that massive hunk of SUV thrusting
itself directly at me with nothing but the front of this little Saturn
protecting me. Before the impact I was sure that I was going to be severely
injured and possibly even killed.

Aside from the scrapes on my wrist from the airbag deploying I had no injuries
whatsoever. The first responders insisted I would have back pains later but
they never came. Meanwhile the driver of the Honda Pilot (which had twice the
mass of my saturn) was unconscious.

When driving it's easy to forget that you're surrounding by massive metal
objects moving at incredible speeds that can instantly kill you. In my case
they did not, thanks to the people who made my Saturn.

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tempestn
Seriously though, if your car is missing three hubcaps, remove the fourth!
Huge appearance upgrade for free.

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jlubawy
I've still got my 2004 Toyota Matrix (first car) which just hit >100,000 miles
this year, nothing compared to other stories out there I'm sure, but
impressive for the little amount of trouble it's caused me. One thing that
scares me about getting a new car is that this one has kept me so safe, and
been so reliable for 10+ years, can another car do that for me?

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alblue
I have a 2002 Prius Hybrid which is still running fine after 120,000 miles -
though I did need to replace the battery earlier this year when one of the
cells leaked (internally). Not exactly a cheap change but has probably given
it another five years life.

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jkmcf
I'm not sentimental about my 1995 Saturn, winner of the most uncomfortable
seats award, but my 2000 Maxima w/ 230k miles was still running great when I
donated it to the Humane Society a year ago.

