Goodbye Prizm - Thanks for the Memories

On Wednesday, the Prizm died for the last time, these are Justin's thoughts.

In honor of the death of the Prizm I have decided to create a Top Ten List of the most memorable experiences I've had with the car over the past 12 years.

10. Watching the odometer turn over to 200000 miles.

9. Parking it next to the Mercedes and BMWs in the doctors VA parking lot

8. The time some hooligan thought it would be a good idea to steal my windshield washer fluid container. Yes, that is right. They didn't take my stereo but they took the windshield washer fluid container thingy.

7. I then spent the better part of the next week searching junk yards with my father-in-law for a replacement for said fluid container thingy. We found one, but apparently Geo made different adapters for different years and we had to MacGyver the connection...we may have even used bubble gum and a safety pin...you bet it worked.

6. Shockingly this connection did not hold out indefinitely and I have spent the better part of the last 2 years waiting for rainy days to drive my car out on the highway and use the spray kicked up by other cars to clean the windshield

5. The time the alternator broke down for the second time in one month. This second time was notably at the Mile Run exit on Highway 80. I say notably because it was the middle of the night and there is absolutely nothing at this exit or within 50 miles. This is not hyperbole. Oh yeah, it was like negative 10 degrees out. I did not yet live in MN so I didn't know that some people consider that a balmy evening in late March.

4. The time the car broke down (oh there were so many times) a half mile away from Katie's parents house when I was already late for an extended family dinner. Now it takes AAA about an hour at the fastest to get someone out to tow you (even if you are a valued customer since 1998 as I am). Disaster! But I did not lose heart. Luckily MN is as flat as a pancake and the Prizm is a glorified go kart, so I was able to single-handedly push the car the remaining distance to my destination.

3. Road trip with Zach LeFeber to Boston after sophomore year of college. For some idiotic reason I refused to put oil in the car the entire trip (and apparently for a ridiculously long time before that as well). Not surprisingly the engine blew up. Luckily this was just as I was getting home from the trip and not in the middle of it.

2. After the engine blew up, a good friend of the family, Sam Pilato aka "Uncle Sam" was able to procure a new engine for practically pennies. Basically I was instructed to have it towed to an undisclosed location where his "boys" would take care of the rest. The next thing I knew the car was back in my driveway with an engine with 50,000 less miles on it. This story deserves its own Top Ten List. Thanks again, Uncle Sam.

And the number one, greatest memory involving this ultimate driving machine...

1. This car had the honor of being the setting of my first kiss with my future wife. Junior year - 2001. What can I say? I am a high roller and Katie could not resist the raw sexual magnetism of your's truly in the ambiance provided by the 93 Geo.

RIP buddy. You will be missed.