Chapter 3

After the demise of my Escort GT, I began a quest to purchase a new car. A really new car, not just another used car that was new to me. My first discovery was that new cars were expensive, but new small trucks were still cheap. This was about a year before Yuppies discovered Sport Utility Vehicles, so small trucks were still considered TRUCKS.

Using my connections at the bank I worked for, I was able to purchase a 1988 Isuzu pickup for $6,700. It had no air conditioning , but if you rolled the windows down and opened the sunroof it provided plenty of air circulation. Even in the hot humid air of Key West, Florida the inside of the truck was always cool. The outside of the truck was black, therefore you could have cooked a full meal on the hood if the sun was out. Since it was a truck, I decided that it needed a front brush guard to protect against falling trees or wandering pedestrians. After the brush guard came the obligatory auxiliary lights, 2 lights on the brush guard, 2 under the bumper. My body shop friend referred to the brush guard as "the Burro Killer" or some really neat Spanish phrase that I have unfortunately forgotten. It seems in his native Venezuela it was quite common that burros or other animals would introduce themselves to oncoming vehicles with messy results. My "burro killer" was mainly for looks, though it did once protect my front end from the banzaii attack of a suicidal crow. Why animals choose to head butt large vehicles is still a great mystery to me.

Every 4 months I would repaint the brush guard with black Rustoleum spray paint and it was as good as new. When the factory tires wore out, I replaced them with larger wider tires, and added better shocks which gave the truck higher ground clearance. This extra ground clearance meant that the truck would begin to lift its front wheels at speeds above 95 MPH. During this time I gained a lot of weight, which helped to offset the problem of front wheel lift. As long as I was fat, I could safely drive really fast in my truck. This proves that diets are not always a healthy thing. The 2.3 liter 4 cylinder engine provided plenty of power for cruising or hauling loads. Though in retrospect, I think a few times I hauled more weight than I should have, and possibly damaged the transmission.

True to its 4 cylinder nature, my truck broke its timing belt while I was driving on the highway. Fortunately, the engine survived without incident or damage. Unfortunately, the transmission started chirping not long afterward. A visit to the transmission repair shop resulted in a $2,500 estimate. Estimate: (noun) A wild guess; or you leave it, we disassemble it, you pay what we want or else. It seems that other Isuzu pickup owners were also hauling large loads in their trucks, so transmissions were hare to find. At the time $2,500 to fix a $6,700 truck did not make sense, so off I went to sell the truck.