In the fall of 1996, my mother and I purchased my first car. It was a maroon 1992 Mercury Topaz sedan with custom maroon carpet on the dashboard. I loved it. I was a high school senior in Versailles, Kentucky, and this would allow me to not only drive to school and take my girlfriend (who would eventually become my wife) on dates, but I would also eventually use it to drive back and forth to college in Atlanta the next year.