Once upon a time, when I was very first using the internet in 1998 or so, I took a quiz promising to match me up with the perfect car to suit my needs. The answer was the Isuzu Amigo. The Amigo really did have it all. It's a convertible, but it's also capable of towing small trailers and especially, a small camper. I took the internet quiz just for fun, but I never forgot the result.
Several years later one of the officers at work showed up with his new to him, Isuzu Amigo. It was a 1998 and I told him from day one that if he ever wanted to sell it to give me first dibs. It was many, many years later when he did. Luckily for me it was the exact same time that I had parked the rolling terrarium and was pretty much relying on borrowing cars to get to work and back. I scooped it up immediately. That was in 2005.
By 2005 Jenny had already come to live with me and was on her way to moving back to Texas, Casey was already living with Haley and I, and her and Haley were graduating from high school. Being a 2 door that rides like a truck the Amigo may not have been a perfect family car, but at the stage of my life I was in it was perfect for me.
The Amigo came with very little problems. The A/C needed to be recharged and the 02 sensor needed to be replaced, but other than that it was perfect. The top wasn't electric like I was used to, and it required some effort to put up and down. The Amigo had few frills, no electric windows or door locks (thank God!) but heck, it was a good multi purpose vehicle that wasn't a piece of crap and I was happy to have it.
Naturally I got it vanity plates right away and for my birthday my parents bought me the trailer hitch, so as far as I was concerned I was vehicularly contented. Until winter came. It drove terribly in the snow. I got stuck everywhere I went even while hauling around a couple of hundred pound bags of sand in the back. However, by the next winter I had scored a good deal on some brand new studded snow tires and then my one complaint with the Amigo was resolved.
The Amigo has not been 100% trouble free. It has needed exhaust work several times and as an Isuzu exhaust is expensive, mine keeps getting pieced back together at least until there is nothing left to piece anymore. The headlights abruptly quit on it one night too and it needed a switch replaced which involved dismantling a whole bunch of stuff (the radio has not worked since??) to repair them. Oh, and one time while someone else was driving it, one of the windows was not secured properly and it blew away never to be seen again. (Haley and Casey bought me a new top for it for my birthday as it was cheaper to buy a new top than just the one window!) AND, lets not forget the windshield wiper issue. They quit working in 2009 during the time I was traveling 100 miles a week to the doctors office and coincidentally the rainiest spring ever, anywhere! But I have to say that all of that was over the span of 4 years and really, I never had anything to legitimately complain about.
The worst it has suffered though was when it made contact with some ass darting across the road in a snowmobile and I hit him. Yes, I am glad I didn't kill the guy, but it did so much damage to the Amigo that the insurance company wanted to declare it totaled. I declined that suggestion and subsequently I drove around with the bumper hanging off until I finally finished it off with a Sawzall. It also received a couple of dents so it's not completely perfectly pretty anymore, but- it's all I have. Almost.
Last fall it started making a new noise and it worried me that something was about to go horribly wrong. By now I was transporting Audrey somewhat and I was concerned about the reliability of the Amigo. Luckily mom and dad had just acquired a Chevy Tracker and they were leaving for the winter anyway, so they let me take the Tracker and I have been driving it ever since. I parked the Amigo across the street from my house in a public lot (for plowing purposes) and reluctantly (and with zero effort) put a for sale sign on it. It was a really hard decision. The thing is, I still like the Amigo! I feel bad that it is sitting across the street and as much as a brand new car would be wonderful, it's not realistic and honestly, I would just as soon have the Amigo.
So, the for sale sign is still on it but only because I have not gone over to remove it. It is covered with snow anyway. I have decided that if I were to sell it before I was able to buy something new and comparable (it could only be a Jeep Cherokee or a Chevy SSR !) I would end up regretting it like I do selling the Geo Metro so many years ago. They don't make the Isuzu Amigo anymore either and all and all it has been a good car, the problems it has had are not far fetched for something 13 years old. Plus, I am not planning on driving across country like I used to do, so I am leaning toward sinking about a thousand dollars into it to fix it's noise (turned out to be another exhaust break) do some body work, get a new radio, finally charge the A/C and maybe get a new O2 sensor, and it needs a really good cleaning- then hopefully I can keep it for another _____ years.
The Isuzu Amigo, the convertible that can tow a camper, voted the perfect car for me by the 1998 internet survey. Who am I to argue with that?
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