Piston Slap: The Butterfly Effect

by Sajeev Mehta

Updated: May 16th, 2014 Published: January 9th, 2013

Earl writes:

Hi Sajeev, here’s a question for you and the best and brightest here. ”How might your life have been different had you bought a particular car?”

As for me, it was a Toyota MR2 Supercharged that I let slide for a 91 Pontiac Sunbird (really!). I was driving a 78 Malibu at the time and it was getting worn out. I found the MR2 and was determined to buy. I was also getting married very soon and was also working in a GM dealers at the time. I think I let the MR2 go because some life circumstances had made me extremely risk-averse. Would buying the MR2 have made me more of a risk taker? Would I have gone back to college a lot sooner and thus been farther ahead in the career I now love?

Has the purchase or non-purchase of a car ever had bigger meaning for you?

I’ll bet there are some great stories out there.

Sajeev answers:

I am a firm believer in the butterfly effect, though I don’t know if one car changes most people’s lives. But for me…well, that happened. So here’s story Number One for you.

With a twist: if my parents didn’t buy that used ’83 Continental Valentino I previously mentioned, I wouldn’t be absolutely infatuated with cars as a child. Which I never outgrew: the Valentino became a daily obsession that certainly changed my destiny. Good or bad, I don’t know. I do know that people are taken aback by this madness, but a single dude can foolishly restore this Valentino and not hurt any one. Wasting tens of thousands of dollars in the process ain’t no thang, bit if I was married with a kid?

If the Valentino was instead scrapped 10+ years ago, would I wind up honing my writing skills on Lincoln message forums back in 1999, landing at TTAC (since 2006) and on your computer? Nope. This car was the springboard to my current life.

When we look introspectively at the wonderful, tragic or just plain idiotic moves from our past and how they define our future, shit gets real.

Back to the Butterfly: for me, cars are irrevocably intertwined with every action. It’s a blessing and a curse, and I suspect everyone battles with similar action-reactions at some point in their lives.

Off to you, Best and Brightest.

Send your queries to sajeev@thetruthaboutcars.com. Spare no details and ask for a speedy resolution if you’re in a hurry.

#ButterflyEffect #CarPurchase #Career #Money

Sajeev Mehta

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2 of 74 comments

Wstarvingteacher on Jan 09, 2013

I've made enough mistakes with cars to hope you are wrong about the butterfly effect. Life is going to be full of increasingly compounded errors if you are right. One good choice was the 81 Datsun King Cab. A little 2wd thatI got before retiring from the Navy. Hooked me on trucks and really helped me get into the air conditioning trade which financed other career moves. The second good thing was meeting my wife while looking at cars at a local lot. She ran the place for her son and it was love at first sight. Really that was when things started going right so maybe you are right.

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Jeffzekas on Jan 10, 2013

Two cars, if i had bought them, would have changed my life: a Morris Mini 850 and a Honda N600- oh well.

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