“I would say my car is positive. Whenever I drive it, I feel calm and safe.”
- The Ride
- The Driver: Lily
- Car in Question: Blue 2009 Hyundai Accent
- Spotted at: Seven Ten Lanes, 1055 E. 55th Street, Chicago, IL 60615
- Odometer: 56,008
- Car’s Nickname: Robin Egg
THE DEFENSE
Q: Do you have a nickname for your car?
A: It’s kind of a powder blue color, so I call it Robin Egg.
Q: What is your car’s main use?
A: Jobs and giving music lessons. A lot of time I travel to people’s homes, so I do a lot of driving. When I bought the car, it had about 33,000 miles. Now it has around 56,000 miles, so I’ve put about 23,000 miles on the car in just one year. I also use it to travel to music gigs. That’s actually the reason I chose to buy this car. Since I travel to gigs about twice a week, I needed a hatchback, so I would have enough room to transport my equipment back and forth.
Q: What type of equipment do you transport in your car?
A: Keyboard, keyboard stand, PA system, and a microphone stand.
Q: Since you’re a musician, what type of music do you listen to while driving?
A: I basically listen to everything except for country. Since I’m a singer, a lot of time I listen to music that I’ll be playing at one of my music gigs. I generally sing along and warm up my voice. When I’m not doing that, I’m listening to a lot of indie music.
Q: Do you ever rock out in Robin Egg?
A: Yeah, I like to dance. I do the chair dance as I call it. Since I spend so much time in the car, I have to spice it up and keep myself entertained.
Q: If your car had a theme song, what would it be?
A: That song “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz. It has a lot of energy and every time it comes on the radio, I dance to it.
Q: Tell us about when you bought this car. Did you buy it recently?
A: I bought it from CarMax a year ago. My last car, a Toyota Corolla, was literally falling apart. My boyfriend actually had the exact same one. The night we met, I thought he was walking me to my car. Then I see him get his keys out. I’m like, “What are you doing?” He’s like, “Getting into my car.” I’m like, “No, this is my car.” Then we realized that his was parked a little ways down. Funny thing is, whenever one of our cars had a malfunction, the other one had one right afterwards. We actually had to buy a new car around the same time, but this time we got different cars. He now has a 1998 Subaru Outback.
Q: How long do you think you will keep Robin Egg?
A: I try to keep my cars as long as I can. The last car I bought, I kept it till it had well over 100,000 miles. I’m going to try to get another 100,000 miles out of this one. It might be wishful thinking though, but I’m going to try!
Q: Finally, if you could buy new, what would be your absolute dream vehicle?
A: I would probably like to ride a motorcycle. I want to go fast, so I’m attracted to anything that goes fast. I also love the open air, so a convertible would be nice.
Photos and interview by Nicolette Chambers
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