Forty Candles and 177,540 Miles
Two weeks from today, Inge Corona is hosting a 40th birthday party at a West Los Angeles park for the only car she has ever owned: a 1964 Chevy Malibu. About 100 people--friends, family, clients (Corona is a barber)--are invited.
Corona, a resident of Los Angeles, purchased her car brand new at a South Gate Chevrolet dealership. Her brother Rick, then a Chevrolet sales manager, helped her negotiate the deal: $2,743, including tax, license and financing. He also talked her out of her first choice.
“He said, ‘You don’t want an Impala,’ ” Corona recalls. “It’s too big for you. Chevy has a new one this year.’ ”
The “new one” was a Chevelle Malibu. Corona selected a white exterior and a bright red interior. “I didn’t know I was making a choice for a lifetime,” she says. She didn’t have a driver’s license, even though she was of legal age, but “they didn’t have computers then,” she says.
“No one in my family wanted to teach me to drive,” says Corona, the youngest of nine. Still, she ended up following her brother to a local Norm’s to celebrate her purchase. The next day, she christened the car “Esmerelda” with a 69 cent bottle of Champagne.
Considering Esmerelda’s mature years, she has had “a simple life, just like her owner,” says Corona, who washes the car by hand at home because car wash tracks “are hard on the balance.” Esmerelda has traveled to Las Vegas and San Francisco, but it’s been several years since one of those jaunts. After a couple of theft attempts, Corona installed a “kill switch.” And these days, Esmerelda overnights in Corona’s secure garage.
Esmerelda has had the same mechanic for the past 28 years, Corona’s friend John Dee, a machinist. Dee has rebuilt Esmerelda’s engine a couple times, but all the major components are original. On the interior, that includes the lap belts, bench seats and AM radio, though the headliner was replaced about 25 years ago, “because the thread rotted.” Corona fields frequent offers from strangers to purchase Esmerelda, the most recent for $30,000. (She passed.)
Corona likes birthdays; Esmerelda also had a sweet 16, a 21st, a 25th and a 30th. As for exactly what happens at a car birthday party, Corona gives this overview: “We sing. We visit. We have a beautiful barbecue. People bring Esmerelda cards and talk to her and wish her a happy birthday. Then the people in the white jackets come and take us away.”
Naturally, Corona gets Esmerelda a gift. “She’s gonna get a good wax job,” she says. “She’s going to be all spruced up.”
