Back in 2008, I had just finished my freshman year of college and I was super stoked to come back home and see my gf. We met in HS and she was a year younger. Also of note, I was driving a 1992 Lexus LS400. It was a tank. It never did anything crazy to me and it was very faithful. I loved that car.

So, that summer I came home to Oxnard and the gf and I hung out lots and lots. Driving the LS to Santa Monica, Getty Muesum, Pantages in DT LA, and lots of HS friends that had also come home from college.

During the end of the summer, things between her and I began to get shaky, but we were really good about talking things over. We were dating for just over 3 years by this point, so I was confident that we could talk things over and figure them out.

She was preparing to go to Cal Poly SLO and started packing her things. I Helped where I could the weeks before. And we talked about some of the stuff that had us “on the rocks” so to speak. Things were improving, not perfect, but I felt like we were on stable ground again. So the last day that she was in town, I went to go say goodbye and see her off. But as I go to start the car, it doesn’t start. The starter is working but its not firing. I have more than half a tank of gas, so I know that’s not the issue. I began to flip. I was going to miss my gf the day she left to college. I was livid. I began cursing at the car because of the reality of what I was faced with. Not saying goodbye. It was a cycle of my trying to start it and then cursing. This went on for what seemed forever, but wasn’t more than about 5 minutes.

I tried one more time and it started. I had such a sigh of relief from it. All that fury began to melt away. It wasn’t a new car, so maybe it was just a hiccup. Horrible timing, but we were underway, so it was forgivable.

I got to her house and I knew immediately from the look on her face that my gf wasn’t happy. I thought it was because she was sad because she was leaving and the distance between us (UCR to SLO). But I was very wrong. I had that all to familiar bombshell dropped on me. It was over.

The reason I remember this event, besides the fact that it was a break up, was that my car hiccuped. But it only hiccuped that ONE time. It never did that before or after over the course of the next 4 years I had it. It always started. It was almost like it knew what was going to happen and tried to save me from it, atleast for that one day. I felt bad being so angry at it after the fact. I really didn’t want to give it up, but with 220k on the clock, it was time for a newer car. To this day its the most inexplicable thing that’s happened to me in a car.