I’ve often complained about how boring my car is.
Like many people with ADD, I’m prone to speeding. When I’m driving fast, I feel more engaged with driving, as if the high speed forces me to pay attention. My car, which is an under-powered late-nineties Toyota sedan, has often been a source of frustration for me. It accelerates slowly, which means that I can’t get around slow people who have the temerity to be in front of me on the freeway. And that drives me nuts.
But at its 100,000 mile service last week, my incredibly boring car vindicated itself.
I dropped the car off at 11 am. I got a call from the garage 4 hours later. My car was ready for me — the mechanic had changed the oil, put air in the tires, and was in the process of replacing the windshield-wiper blades. The total cost was about $100.
It occurred to me as I drove home that my car has been a great help managing my ADHD. My car has never once broken down. One of the repair indicator lights went on once — once — about ten years ago, when it was still under warranty; and it was determined that the fault was with the indicator, not with the mechanics of the car. Hell, that car has never so much as made a funny noise. The only repairs it has ever needed fall under standard wear and tear. This means that I’ve been able to plan in advance when to take it in to the garage, and how long I’ve needed to leave it there. I’ve never had to deal with nasty, schedule-altering surprises.
Over the years, I’ve learned that the streamlining is the single most important thing I can do to manage my ADD. For instance, I stick to pretty much the same schedule every week, running the same errands at the same time, so I don’t have to stop and think about each and every step. This saves me huge amounts of time and energy. The fact that I can rely on my car to get me to and from these errands is a godsend. When you factor in the amount of money my household has saved over the years in repair and maintenance costs, my boring little car looks better and better.
If you have ADD, and you’re in the market for a new car, you can save yourself a ton of hassle by shopping on reliability. Check out Consumer Reports car reviews, with particular attention to repair records. Keep in mind that the more sophisticated a car is — the more bells and whistles it has — the more things there are to go wrong; which means that you will not only be spending more for the car initially, but you’ll also have to sink more money into the car over its life in order to keep it running.
Keep it simple, and your car will help keep your life simple.