suly 18, 199Y C13 The Mom and Dad ad school of driving By CHRIS ERSKINE Los Angeles Times PASADENA, Calif. She spins around the Rose Bowl parking lot in her mother's white minivan, a car with the handling and sex appeal of a giant Tupperware container. Safe. Solid. Easy to wash.
Tupperware. "I like this car," my lovely and patient older daughter says. "Me too," I say. Just turned 16, my daughter hears the call of the concrete, the whistle of the a automobile want ads. Not.
once has she spotted a vehicle she wouldn't love to marry. To her, there are no ugly cars. "Look at that nice Ford Escort," she says, as we circle the parking lot. "Very nice," I say. We have been coming to the Rose Bowl like this for months now, spending warm summer evenings practicing her turns and stops in the giant parking lot, which leaves plenty of margin for error.
"Two hands on the tell her. "OK, Dad," she says. Mostly, she's got this two-hands thing down now. When she first got her permit, she'd occasionally dangle her left arm out the window, as if holding a beer or a cigarette, which is a fine way to drive if you happen to live in Alabama and have tattoos of naked women up and down your. arm.
But not for her. For her, i it's two hands on the wheel. "You never know when a tire's going to blow out," I tell her. "You don't?" she asks. "No, you don't," I say.
6 Books: Beetle buffs I have summer reads Continued from Page C11 about how one must do meE chanical work on a VW with tired design, aggressive Japa- love or the result will be failE nese competition and ever- ure. He even suggests talking tighter safety and pollution to the cars. A drawing of the rules. The original, essential- VW "control system" is a dily unchanged since the 1940s, agram of the human brain. continues to be produced in But don't be misled.
This is Mexico, still with its rear- an extremely practical book mounted, air-cooled engine. that really will help you keep The books also cover the an old Beetle or Microbus on "rebirth" last year of the not- the road. quite-dead car as the New Here are some other noteBeetle, which shares little worthy, recently published with its predecessor except books on automotive matters: the general shape that makes a Buying used: A new it instantly recognizable. The guide to buying a used car, New model Beetle that is an all- VW "Lemon Aid Used Cars 1999," Golf's front-mounted uses the engine by Phil Publishing, Edmonston is one (Stoddart of and platform. It has received the most valuable of its kind good reviews and high scores because it includes informain safety tests and has sold tion on secret warranties and briskly, while also unleashing confidential service bulletins waves of nostalgia for the old that most owners aren't Bug.
aware of and most automakThe authors write that one "ers want to keep that way. of the secrets of the original's These often result from success was the company's con- lawsuits or government interwillingness to abandon vention that may not be wideventional wisdom. Instead of ly publicized. For instance, Heinz changing Nordoff, models who every year, few Honda owners are likely was put to be aware that under a setin charge of VW following tlement with the EnvironHenry Ford's rejection, kept mental Protection Agency, refining the same car, making the company extended its it better and better, while oth- emissions warranty to 14 er carmakers were obsessed years or 150,000 miles for with flashy bringing "new out models ever 1995-97 Civics and 1996-97. every Accords, Preludes and Odysyear.
Conventional wisdom was seys. This means that if you own one of these vehicles, also rejected by VW's U.S. you are entitled to a full enadvertising agency, the old check and emission-reDoyle Dane Bernback. Ads lated repairs at 50,000 to were simple and clever; they 75,000 miles, and free tuneal poked looks fun at the car's unusu- ups at 75,000 and 150,000 and urged potential miles. buyers to "think small." In "Lemon-Aid" also has 1953, 2,173 Beetles were sold formation on prices and dein 'America; by 1968, that fects for two decades of used high number of rose 569,292.
to an all-time cars, and advice on getting For the New Beetle, Arnold your lemon. money The back if you buy a Communications of Boston is organization book's are layout daunting, and also producing advertisem*nts that make but the information is worth "If you smile. the trouble it takes to find it. '80s," you one says, your "here's in the Buying new: Once again, sold soul back." your the "Dummies" series inchance to buy it creases An unexpected result of the your smarts with Beetle phenomenon is that a "Buying a Car for Dummies" car intended for the average by Deanna Sclar (IDG Books, person ended up crossing all around one of the available best ailclass lines. The same is true guides to for Beetle redux; the new car buying or leasing a car.
Little has been snapped up by ce- icons on almost every page lebrities, commoners and col- serve warnings as or flags things for to helpful tips, lege students. remernAnd, yes, the original Bee- ber; cific for example, there is spetle really did float. Events advice on how to get a staged by the Waterbugs of better deal by using an auto America Racing Association broker or a buying service. required participants to drive a Berlitz for breakdowns: their cars into the water and "Car Smarts," by Mary JackE mile. negotiate There a were course even of about a son $17.95) (John is a Muir lighthearted, Publications, easy unsuccessful attempts to cross the to understand guide for dealEnglish Channel in floating ing with mechanics and VWs.
speaking their language. It reports One more that tidbit: college McLeod stu- cially could for be those very useful, mystified by espe-. a dents set an unofficial record car's innards. The drawings by packing into a Beetle and and diagrams are clear; techdriving it 15 feet. She does nical terms are nicely' exnot' report the exact date of plained.
and the writing is this feat or car's condition free of jargon. afterward. Taurus watch: Mary If your interest in the Bee- Walton had unrestricted acE tle torical, is more you might practical prefer than his- the cess signers to and Ford engineers executives, as they de18th edition and 30th anni- set out to redesign the popuversary issue of. "How to lar Taurus. In her very readaKeep Your Volkswagen.
ble book, "Car: A Drama of Alive," by. John. the American Workplace" Muir folksy guide Publications, to keeping $25). older This (W.W. version.
$17), Norton, she tells paperback you models running became a more than you may want to hippie handbook that has know about the 1996 model. sold more than 2.3 million But her account is particularcopies since it was first pub- ly interesting now that the lished in 1969. market has' passed judgment The book, whose subtitle is on that car not entirely Manual of Step by Step vorably and Ford is bring: Procedures for the Compleat ing out a 2000 Taurus that Idiot," is not just a detailed eliminates or tones down a It is how-to a book chronicle on of fixing one a man's car. tures number of of the the 1996-99 distinctive models. fealove affair with VWs it Despite minutiae, a could have been called "Zen er will come away' with an and the Art of Volkswagen appreciation of the complexiMaintenance." Muir writes ties of building a car.
Round and round the Rose Bowl lot we go, which is empty except for all the other new drivers and their dads using the parking lot for practice. Five, six, eight of them, all stopping and starting, stopping and starting. "Look, there's my daughter yells, then screams and waves out the window to her friend Marie, who screams and waves back. "Two hands," I say. "I can't believe I saw Marie," she says.
The student drivers and their dads prowl the giant parking lot like U-boats, wary of the other student drivers, pulling up along the curbs, then pulling out again, always with the turn signal. "That was fun," my daughter says. when we're free of the others. "I'll never forget it," I tell her. Used to be, driving was taught in high schools, by football coaches who could barely fit into the mid-sized sedans big men, 6 feet tall by 6 feet wide, without an ounce of fat on them.
Now it's moms and dads who do the dirty work big men and women without an ounce of fat on them trying to sit. calmly in the passenger seat while their children try to remember which pedal is the brake. "OK, now put your foot over the brake," my wife says as they head toward a stop sign. "Which one's the brake?" our daughter "Don't joke," her mother says sternly. Like a lot of parents, her mother is a calm driving instructor, maintaining her composure no matter what.
"Slow down," she says as our daughter approaches a busy intersection. "Slow down. Slow Down! SLOW "Chill, Mom," our daughter says when she finally slows down. In the night, I wake up kicking at the bed sheets, looking for a brake pedal as we go speeding through an intersection in a giant white Tupperware container. "Slow down.
Slow Down! SLOW I scream in my dreams. "It's OK," my wife says when she wakes me. "That was close," I say. "You can let go of my hair now," she says. "Thanks," I say.
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