But will it do the Kessel run in under 12 parsecs?

For the first time in my life, I have a car of my very own. And for almost the first time in my life, I'm driving a car to get myself from place to place. I've been a motorbike boy pretty much forever, but now that I'm getting geriatric, riding a bike in the freezing cold sleet and rain is a lot less appealing, and I also now have a need for more cargo capacity than a motorbike can provide.

It's an automatic 1995 Nissan Lucino (which is, as far as I can tell, just a foreign name for a Pulsar/Sentra).

Within 30 minutes of buying it, I had already smashed in the front left guard, owing to my extreme incompetence at reversing in anything other than a straight(ish) line. Fortunately, a replacement panel from the wreckers only cost about fifty bucks. Unfortunately, it's a different colour — about as different a colour as it would be possible to be. It's white, and I'm thinking that rather than try to match the existing paint I might just paint it plaid or paisley or something. Frankly, I very much doubt that it will be the last dent-replacement this car will have.

I've always been faintly (sometimes not-so-faintly) contemptuous of cars, calling them "street zeppelins" and the like. But I have to say, I'm rather enjoying driving this one.