Chapter Two: My First Trade Deal

From my Eclipse to my 'Zuki- this is the experience that attracted me to this car-acquiring tactic.

I'm pretty sure it applies to all enthusiast- but eventually, you'd like to experience how it feels to move one from your first car. I know I caught that bug and well, for me, that feeling came just a few months after I picked up my good ol' Eclipse.

I always had a strong fascination with manual transmissions. Only those who have practice driving a standard will know, until you're banging through your own gears, engaging that clutch and shifting to the next gear as you please, you're not really driving.

You see, automatic transmissions eliminate human control over arguably the most essential part of total-control driving- determining when to shift up-and-down as you please to control power, torque and relatively all displacement factors powering your vehicle.

I was intrigued.

Of course I was appreciative of being handed a car from a total stranger. But, there was one disappointment to come with that.

In my younger years, I always had the enthusiast mindset of acquiring something "stick and fast" to start off in.

Again, totally not complaining, but it was a bit of a let-down to look in the window of that little red coupe upon taking a trip to check out the Eclipse. Before I left to see her, the conversation went simply:

Me: "Is it stick?"

Owner:"Yes it has a stick shifter."

Me: "Oh that's perfect!"

Upon arrival, I saw that dreadful automatic shifter (might I add pretty cool looking, but still automatic nonetheless).

I couldn't complain- I was handed a car. However, I knew I wanted a stick. So I drove her for that summer, but still remained consumed in Craigslist car shopping.

That's when I came across my 2000 Suzuki Vitara. The predecessor was the highly-acclaimed Sidekick, before that was the successful Samurai, but the Vitara remained true to most of their unique styling cues, and was a fun "baby Wrangler" in its own right.

What attracted me was not its ridiculously powerful 97-hp 1.6 inline four cylinder, nor its lack of the 4x4 option. Nope, it was the fact that the little four banger was paired with a 5-speed manual gearbox.

Since I was 17 and really not making much car-money at the time, I was always searching "manual trades" or "trade for automatic" in the search bar. Eventually, I came across the ad for this little truck.

The poster explained that she recently underwent serious back surgery and could no-longer deal with using the clutch. They were searching for an economical, automatic car in exchange.

"Well whadya know!?" I thought... "I have one of those!"

I sent over a nice picture of my trusty Eclipse, mentioned the low-mileage, and they were all over it. The owners drove over from Newark to take a look at my car, and well, the trade-deal was a match made in heaven. Neither of our cars were perfect, new, or the greatest out there. But, each offer fit the most important desired need of each of us, and well, the rest is history.

We swapped titles that day and they were on their way. Two days after I acquired this car, I was rolling to school stalling out and burning that clutch, but ridiculously happy to have the chance to learn stick- regardless that I did not have the funds to go out and buy something manual. I made it work, and had awesome times with that car.

I threw a system in her complete with stupidly-powerful subwoofers, and man you couldn't beat driving down to the jersey shore top-down with the bass cranked all the way up. That car and I went through everything together. I had her from the beginning of my senior year of high school to about halfway through college. The story of getting her was great, and I'll be forever grateful for being able to utilize the internet to score her that way.