1992 Nissan Sentra SE, four-door, manual transmission, black with red striping.

Bought by Shippy in 1998 on Super Bowl Sunday in Milwaukee. (The Packers lost.) Has roughly 159,000 miles on her, about half of which are mine. Has been to New Orleans, Dallas, northern Michigan, most major midwestern cities, and Cape Girardeau (aka Gerard Depardieu) Missouri. Been in three minor accidents and towed three times under my watch.

Fun fact: When I bought it I didn't know how to drive stick. I specifically wanted a vehicle with manual transmission so I'd be forced to learn. Those first couple weeks were fun. No one wanted a ride in my new car.

Broken into twice, the first time while parked (unlocked) in front of my home in Grinnell. The only thing in it was a case of audio cassettes, so somewhere in Grinnell there are some young ruffians running around with a bunch of Loud Family and David Sylvian mixtapes. The second time it was burglarized, in Iowa City, the consequences were far more dire: my beloved drum kit was stolen. The police came to investigate but all they said was, "You really need to get a front license plate on that bumper there."

On the way back from New Orleans in 2000, the transmission blew and the clutch "basically disintegrated," in the words of the kindly folks at the Nissan dealership in Gerard Depardieu, MO. While waiting for it to get fixed, the seven of us went bowling.

In '99 I replaced the factory cassette deck with an Aiwa cassette deck. I should've just gotten a CD player, which is what I eventually did in '02. Other customizations include bumblebee stickers on the rearview mirror, baseball bat in the trunk for self-defense, Buddhist driving prayer on the dashboard, iPass transponder, rear left window superglued shut because it wouldn't stay up, Buddha fish on the back, Apple Computer sticker on the back, Nolan Rotation sticker on the bumper, front passenger door that sticks closed, malfunctioning automatic passenger seatbelt, driver's side door that doesn't close all the way, missing front hubcaps, malfunctioning dome light.

Still gets roughly 30 miles to the gallon.