'Ol Bessie

 In retirement, I have two pretty dependable cars that I have mentioned before. A black Toyota Tacoma and a blue Subaru Crosstrek. I hope that these cars last us a long time and will not have too many costly repairs. When I was young my dad named some of his cars, 1937 Ford Truck was Henry, his newer blue truck was 'Ol Blue and his red truck was called Red. He was very innovative with his names. I began naming my cars just for fun and to carry on dad's tradition. One of my first loved cars was a 1973 Mustang Mach 1. It was a turquoise color called medium aqua and had an avocado interior. Someone must have ordered those two colors together, because it was a strange combination. Over the years that car was painted with gray primer after a head on collision with a cow. That car was Bessie. Somewhere down the line I had heard of that name for a car and it just stuck with me. From then on I named most every car we had with well thought out names. There was White Bessie, Blue Bessie, Red Bessie, Work Bessie, etc. My '73 Mustang became Original Bessie just to keep track of things. One time at work, I had to fly from OKC to Albuquerque to pick up my new work car, a red Ford Taurus, and drive it 9 hours back to OKC. I got home and announced that after getting a good feel of the car and it's personality and having 9 hours to contemplate it, I had picked out a name.....Red Bessie. My wife and kids just groaned. 

My two kids have picked up the tradition and named their cars too! My daughter's first car, a red Mustang convertible, was named Abby and then her next car, a blue Honda Civic, was Blueberry Giles. Her current Ford Edge is called Sandy. My son's first car was a white Mustang named Sadie and his next car, a maroon Mustang, was Ellie. His current Ford Focus ST is called Stella. 

My wife named her blue Subaru, Blue Bonnet and my black Toyota is Midnight. I know, Midnight is out of my normal Bessie range, but I also refer to it as Black Bessie. I often refer to her car as Blue Bessie and she quickly corrects me. 

Retirees on fixed incomes must have good dependable transportation that doesn't break the bank with upkeep and repairs. There are lists from various sources on the most dependable, the safest, the least repairs, etc. When looking for your retirement cars, please do your research and pick something that will suit your needs and your budget. Most often, retirees are not caught up in the glitz and glamour of the priciest cars out there, but looking for good, dependable transportation. Some will downsize from two or more cars to just one car as the extra is no longer needed to get back and forth to work. For my wife and I, we need two to go our separate ways as needed and to have a truck to carry larger items when needed. We use her Subaru for most road trips due to the space and great mileage. We use my truck for shorter trips, Home Depot trips, and I use it when going metal detecting (she doesn't like all the dirt in her car!).

What vehicles did you pick to drive and why? Do you name your cars? If so, what are the names? I'm sure there are some unique names out there!