Poor Doris is getting such a workout.

Doris is my car. She’s a good car. She has never left me stranded despite the way I treat her. I bought her on December 25, 2007, and since then I’ve driven her about 60,000 kilometres.

At the moment I’m making two trips a week to Saint John. According to Google Maps, that’s 966 km each week. In addition, I drive to work every day, which adds another 158 km weekly. So, without making any other trips or running any errands, my minimum weekly driving is 1,124 km—or about 58,448 km per year.

Doris is a good car, but I would love to replace her.

I’m bitter. I way overpaid when I bought her.

She has some strange electrical problems. For example, when I turn on the overhead cabin light, the only thing that illuminates is the trunk-open warning light on the dashboard. She’s also a little noisy—not because of engine problems, but because you hear so much road, wind, and engine noise. She’s just not a very well-insulated car.

There’s a small rust spot on the trunk that’s slowly growing, and she’s only a 2005.

Doris is a silver, four-door Hyundai Accent with a five-speed manual transmission. She’s almost exactly the same size as Francis, my previous car—a 1991 Toyota Tercel.  

With Doris’ help, I’m teaching someone to drive.

He’s doing… well?

I’ve taught people to drive before, and I’ve taught three people how to drive a standard transmission. But it’s a real challenge teaching someone both how to drive and how to drive a standard at the same time.

The first time we went out, I told him to focus only on the pedals and steering while I handled shifting gears. He’s doing the shifting himself now, but he’s still working on hill starts. And he could definitely use a little more practice turning into driveways from the street.

Suffice it to say, I was glad to be alive after our Monday evening drive, and I was shocked that we missed the pedestrian and avoided airbag deployment at the end of yesterday’s lesson.

Tomorrow is another day. Always an adventure.