This is my family's 2006 Toyota Corolla CE, Cecelia. :) Cecelia has been a part of my family since she was brand new, making her just a little over 11 1/2 years old. She currently has 158,561 miles on her, and she runs like a champ. <3 You might be wondering how it's possible that an 11 1/2 year old car can look so good, right? Well, Cecelia was in a bit of an accident several weeks ago, but the amazing guys at Dream Works Collision Center fixed her up for us, and got her looking like she just rolled out of the factory. :) They did a lot of extra work on her for free, including some work on her engine, so as great as she was running before, she runs better than ever now. :) Being in my family for so long, Cecelia has become like dear friend to me, and my goal is to get my driver's license so that I can drive her. <3
She's been through quite a bit over the years that we've had her. Three collisions, a few flat tires, almost getting stuck in snow once, having her electrical system fried (I'll get to that in a minute), but she's never let my family down. :) She has broken down twice, but neither of those incidents were her fault or the result of old age. The first time was when her engine overheated because while we were driving, one of her radiator hoses came loose. The second time is a bit of a longer story. See, one time, her trunk latch stopped working, so we had to hold her trunk closed using a bungee cord. The only problem with that was that the light in her trunk was on nonstop, which ended up draining her battery. So while waiting to get the trunk latch fixed, we had to use a jumper/powerbox to jump start her anytime we needed to go somewhere. One day, while my dad from up in Arizona was down visiting, her hooked the jumper cables on backwards! :( As a result, poor Cecelia's electrical system got fried. :( Thankfully we were able to have that fixed, and she was back home with us a few days later. So aside aside from those two times that weren't her fault, thanks to taking her in for her regularly scheduled maintenance (always remember to take your cars in for their check ups!), Cecelia has been running like a champ for over 11 1/2 years. :)
Although, we nearly lost her after her most recent accident several weeks ago. :( Our insurance said they were going to total her, but we didn't let that happen! We bought her back from the insurance company for $800 of the money they would have given us for her, and the rest of that money we used to have her repaired elsewhere. Thankfully, the day of the accident, the tow truck driver told us about Dream Works Collision Center and recommended we have her repaired there. We took his advice, talked to the people there, and they were amazing! Not only were they more than willing to repair Cecelia, but because money was tight for us at the time, they did a bunch of the work for free! We only had to pay for the repairs to the frame, front end, and radiator, and they did the rest for free! Thanks to them, and their amazing generosity, we were able to save Cecelia and get her back on the road again. :) This picture was taken just a couple of days ago, when we got her back after her repairs were finally finished. :)