If only the car was stolen…

By By Leada DeVaney
Owners of Toyota Camrys, Honda Civics and Honda Accords be warned: according to a recent report, those cars are stolen the most often in the United States.
Gee, glad I don't drive one of those.
The strange part about it is it's not the newer cars that are stolen. For Camrys, it's 1989, 1990 and 1991 models that are disappearing. The years are pretty much the same for the other models as well.
I wish I had known this several years ago – I would have put a big sign on my 1992 Honda Civic.
I loved my little red Civic. It was a great car for a number of years, carrying me through the end of college and into my first job.
I was driving that little, red car on a Sunday when everything changed. I was out shooting pictures during an ice storm – not the smartest thing to do. I was trying to drive as carefully as I could and took a turn onto what I believed was a relatively well-traveled road.
Just as I was coming down the road, I hit an icy patch and lost control of the Civic. It spun around 360 degrees, but thankfully ended up on the side of the road. I was shaken up, but me and the car were fine. Or so I thought.
I was sitting behind the wheel, trying to figure out how I was going to get out of this predicament, when another car came over the hill. The car hit the same icy patch and hit me head on.
The good news was no one was injured.
The bad news was the driver of the car had no insurance. It wasn't even her car. My little Civic was a crumpled mess.
Confident they would total the car, I began looking around for its replacement.
Another Honda?
A Chevy?
A Ford?
The possibilities were endless – at least in that one week before they decided they weren't going to total my car.
Uh oh.
They "fixed" my car, or at least that is what I was told. The truth was the car was never right after that day. It seemed that the front end was going one way and the back end was going another. It was so severe that no one wanted to ride in my car.
I, alone, would brave the little, red Civic – at least for a few months.
It was then I decided I had had enough and needed transportation that agreed in its direction.
I took the Civic down to the car dealership, praying they wouldn't drive it before they offered me a trade in. They didn't.
Good news.
If only I had known then that this car was a hot commodity, I would have put a sign on it that said "Free to a non-law abiding home! Not responsible for how the car drives!"