Being raised in a big city in Central Europe, I never was a car guy after a bit of drooling over Lamborghinis in elementary school, and thought public transport was just fine. When the need for a family car finally arose, I struggled a bit learning to drive stick back there, being packed in the driving school together with those 17-year olds that appeared to master everything in five minutes. Passed the (unthinkably tough for US standards) road test at first try, unlike said 17-year olds, and finally got my first driver's licence at the tender age of 39. Then got ourselves a boring used sedan and drove it with zero pleasure, disgruntled after every service visit.
Soon afterwards, already over here in the US, I bought an el cheapo 2000 Grand Am from a junk car dealer and considered our "car business" handled for a few years. Then, when I backed out of the garage one night and sheared the passenger side mirror clear off on a lurking black garbage can, I thought to myself, man, it's time to finally grow up, embrace the car culture and ditch that car hate. Bought a new mirror and fixed it myself, then, drunk with my newfound success, replaced the old headlights and broken turn signal stalk, which meant having to remove the air bag, all fearful moves I used to dread. But most importantly, after this I slowly began noticing cars.
One day, taking a walk with my daughters, something caught my eye in a parking lot, went over to see it and marveled. It was a 5th gen black Camaro SS, a beautiful work of art. Saw it once every week afterwards and I'm not sure how to express this properly, but it simply started to speak to me at a deep level, unlike any car before. By the time the 6th gen came out, family purposes had been amply served with a big SUV, and after finding a few videos online, fate finally caught up with me, I fell thoroughly in love with the looks, the sound, the interior, everything seemed amazing and an upgrade from the 5th gen. Researched all the muscle and sports car choices, looked at Dodges, Fords and imports, even drove some, but none of them called out to me the way the Camaro did.
Finally I went to a dealership and ordered a new 2018 2LT without test driving anything they had (wanted to totally surprise myself), which was a mistake in hindsight, the torque was simply not there in the V6 despite the sublime handling, so eventually I decided to switch to a 2SS (and make someone else happy by sponsoring first year depreciation for them---live and learn). Now here I am with this absolute dream car, even the shortest drives in which are exhilarating and put a wide grin on my face.
If there ever was a late, even last minute, bloomer, haha
