My Life in 3 Cars.
Oh my god!” I gasped, seeing the bright red Lexus pull into the HEB parking lot. It was pristine. The pictures simply did not do it justice. What I am referring to is the day I test drove my now former Lexus RCF, the most beautiful car I have ever owned. Cars have been a focal point since middle school, an addiction that first started when I played Need for Speed on a friend’s Xbox back in sixth grade. The timeline of how I got from there to having my $40,000 money pit with no air conditioning is best told recapping my favorite memories with each of my cars, starting with my 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe.
2008 Chevrolet Tahoe
The Tahoe, the ‘hoe, the Battle Bus, the Mudsiah, or whatever it was known by, had been in my family from Christmas 2007, all the way to late 2021. While the car was in good condition while my mom owned it, the Tahoe got a lot more character from when I started driving it. The Tahoe did everything that was asked of it and more, while occasionally breaking with a very expensive repair bill for me to foot.
The most shining example of this was when my friends and I went off-roading in our trucks. The culture of my high school dictated that most people had nice first cars, everyone else in my friend group had the top-of-the-line off-road spec of their particular brand new pickup. Determined not to be left out, the Tahoe tackled terrain way out of its league, and most of the time was able to make it back home.
The day it did not make it home was when we were out in a master plan neighborhood under development, which had just been freshly rained on – a 400 acre mud pit, with roads and concrete sprinkled in between. I was thrashing it through the deep ruts and brown puddles, sometimes hitting small ponds of standing water at over 30 mph – this was all on a Wednesday afternoon after school mind you. After we’d caused enough trouble, I pulled over to shift my car back from 1st to Drive on the column shifter, except it wouldn’t. I tried pulling the key out to restart the car, but of course General Motors vehicles can only start in Park. We were stuck, and ultimately had to leave the murder weapon at the scene of the crime, leaving while we dispatched a tow truck to haul it to the closest shop. Except they mangled the bumper and caused an extra $1300 in damage to the Tahoe alongside the snapped transmission selector cable. The lesson I learned from the Tahoe - don’t push a car beyond its limits or things will break.
2015 LExus RC F
My next car was 2015 Lexus RC F, which I had bought after having my parents match the money I made working two jobs all of high school. I had bought it at the beginning of the pandemic, right before I graduated high school, which meant that I got it for an absolute steal. It was gorgeous, comfortable, and fast.
Those last two came into play when I had a family emergency when I was at school in North Carolina at the time. I had to rush home to Texas, leaving school at 3pm, and arriving on my front porch by sunrise, never stopping to rest. While I was certainly driving well over the speed limit the entire way there, I can think of only a handful of cars that would have been more fun to do that drive in. The 7 states in 16 hours is impressive in the Northeast, but even crazier in the Southeast. Were there moments I was convinced that would die? Absolutely. Did I live to tell the story? Yes. Would I do it again that fast? Never.
2015 BMW M3
While the RCF was perfect in nearly every way, it felt lifeless. It lacked the spirit and spunk that the Tahoe had. The Lexus felt far too composed at speed, and I wanted something a bit more intense and engaging. At the end of the day, it was meant for an older clientele, evident by the fact that the only clock in the car was analog. After pressure from my family to consolidate to one car between the RCF and the Tahoe, I met in the middle on a BMW M3 sedan. It has the character and spunk of the Tahoe, with the speed of the Lexus.
Perhaps my favorite memory with the M3 was this past summer, when I road tripped it as far west as Phoenix and as far east as Greenville. While it may be smelly, loud, uncomfortable in long distances, and full of rattles, the places and people I saw along the way more than made up for the struggle. I took my time and visited friends and family in Arizona, Colorado, North Texas, Alabama, and Georgia. It was truly a special summer filled with lots of sights and sounds – thanks in particular to my newly installed catless downpipes. While my air conditioning broke halfway through the drive - thanks to a pothole in Hammond, Louisiana making every mile significantly hotter, I still love every mile in the M3.
Photo Credits to: myself, NBDY Photography, and Stage 2 Media
