This is a review of my car.
I know you are probably used to reading reviews of gear, books, movies, even music.
I am here to give you something totally different.
My cars name is Roxanne.
She is a 2001 Subaru Outback, green, with ski racks and a lot of stickers.
Roxanne became mine just over a year ago.
Her previous owners, a young couple had treated her with love and respect.
Roxanne only has 133 thousand miles on her.
This June I drove her ten hours to Red Lodge, Montana to cover the Beartooth Summer Session.
Up until this point Roxanne had been relatively reliable.
Three hours into the drive home disaster struck and Roxanne earned her name.
A series of loud grating noises later and we were stranded with a blown engine.
Roxanne used to score high on the reliability scale.
Now, I am not so sure.
For now Roxanne scores one broken piston out of four for reliability.
Utility
Roxanne was purchased primarily for her utility.
With her seats folded down she makes a great camper.
She sleeps one ski bum very comfortably and stays warm, even in the dead of winter.
She scores five air fresheners out of five for utility.
Roxanne is all-wheel drive, she has decent ground clearance and she doesn’t balk at mud.
I have only ever gotten Roxanne stuck once at that was purely driver error.
You cant really expect any car to pull itself out of a snowbank that reaches higher than the windows.
Roxanne scores four out of four bald tires for Ability to Defeat Rugged Terrain.
Image
Finally we reach our last and possibly most important attribute, Image.
Some people buy cars based simply on Image.
I personally think most of those people are lame but that is irrelevant.
In the liberal college town where I live I sometimes struggle with the image my Subaru gives me.
I feel like I should have a Coexist sticker and eat more organic food.
Is it ok to be a conservative, pro-gun, pro-logging male and drive a Subaru Outback?
Is it ok to drive a Subaru and shop at Walmart sometimes?
Can I drive a Subaru to go deer hunting with my brother?
These are the questions that strain my relationship with Roxanne.
Image, yep, I’m the dude with the Subaru and the Birkenstocks, deal with it.
Four out of five liberal bumper stickers for image.
What she lacks in reliability and image she makes up for in utility and character.
Roxanne, basking majestically in the early morning light.
