2000+
I’ve had my new car for two months now, and have put over 2000 miles on her. She finally told me her name about three weeks after I came home with her — her full name is Delphinus, but she goes by Delphi for short.
I’ve noticed that I drive differently with Delphi than I did wil Arthur. I’m certainly more comfortable on the Beltway than I was — I had started getting paranoid that cars were crushing in on my during my commute. Now I’m much more comfortable, probably because Delphi sits higher on the road than Arthur did.
I drive faster than I did in Arthur. Arthur had a 70 mph shimmy that alerted me when I was going 70 mph. Delphi, however, does not shimmy. In fact, she doesn’t even shimmy at 80 mph. So, it’s way too easy for me to go fast without knowing it.
I also drive a bit more agressively. That’s not entirely good. In Arthur, I would just sit in the second-right lane for the first half of my trip to work. This is the lane I need to be in when the Beltway splits off for I-270 (I stay on the Beltway). Now, though, I’m zooming in the left lanes, unsatisfied with the “slow” cars in the right lanes, until about a mile or two before the I-270 split.
All in all I’m enjoying my new car. I still get a small twinge of guilt when I see one of Arthur’s many cousins, but I know that he’s hopefully serving as an organ donor to these many cousins in the area.