from all the things i could hope for on this adventure in the united states, i did not expect to be given a car. but i was, and there is nothing boring about this particular car. no sir, nothing. riding it is always an act of exploration. of the car, i mean.

nearly every time we drive it – me or my friend joão -, we find a new noise in it. either an original one or a funny combination of old ones, random irritating little noises that make our journeys a true symphony, humming, buzzing and hissing all the way.

it has an inside rear mirror that shakes proportionally to the need of using it at that specific moment, a speedometer that oscillates between an interesting range of speeds – no matter how constant we move, and a gear stick with a inner calling that demands, periodically, someone to hold it still. oh, and an exhaustion pipe with an extra-loud feature which asserts us that our presence is always noticed – at least one block away.

the windshield has a few cracks on it, but luckily, it’s still waterproof, we think. on the dashboard, most of the gadgets don’t work at all; the cassette player doesn’t play, and the radio – just to be supportive -, doesn’t give a single sound either. basically, all the car bells and whistles are dead. hum, well, that’s not completely true: it does whistle frequently when driving fast though.

the driver side mirror is reduced to 1/6 of it’s size, plus, it’s now broken in two – a very good way to get different (but tiny) perspectives of the road i must admit. but, not everything is bad: our car has something that no other car has: a special semi-automatic window opening mechanism that is applied to both back doors. it’s ‘automatic‘, because one of them slowly opens when in motion; ‘semi‘, because the other window doesn’t open at all, not even if we want it to.

but, hey, other than this tiny minor details, it’s a great car and it actually moves! and, as it’s known around here, mazda is the asian porsche. for us it sure is. and for all others, it sure sounds like one.