I am currently unable to drive my 5-speed Fiero do to recent surgery on my shifting shoulder. Adding in a lack of power steering means I'll be driving our minivan for awhile longer before moving "up" to our manual transmission Mustang. So why am I telling y'all this?
Well, a friend was supposed to come over today -- a former Fiero owner in town for the Holidays -- and take my car for a drive. Holidays being what they are, he had to cancel. However, I'd already rolled the car out of the garage and had it sitting at a nice angle in my driveway. Not wanting to leave it outside overnight in the frosty 66 degree Georgia winter, I decided to ask my wife to take it for a drive before pulling it back into the garage.
For those of you who don't know my wife, she has a definite size advantage when it comes to sitting on the Fiero's passenger side or hiking trails with low branches. This advantage does not extend to seeing over the Fiero's dash or reaching all three pedals. Anyway, she agreed to move the car, then quickly realized it lacked the aforementioned power steering we've all become so use to. Her first few turns were rather wide and I felt forced to congratulate her on her foresight moving the van from the driveway.
She was a good sport about the whole thing, even tolerating the non-powered brakes. Didn't stall once, and only told me, "Now would be a good time to be quiet", once when I asked if she'd like her own Fiero.
The car is now nestled comfortably back in the garage.
