Announcing The CarCovers.com 2018 Essay Scholarship Winner

In an undisclosed location in Southern California, we discovered a diamond in the rough. Her assignment was to write about "How To Make Your Car Last Forever."

She starts off by capturing her readers' attention with an all too common statement of how many people treat their cars: "It starts with my previous car, which was a Chrysler Town and Country Minivan. I treated this car in very inappropriate ways, I never checked the fluids, the tires would need to be showing threads before I would get new ones. If it was knocking or pinging, I would wait till the noise was too loud to ignore or there was smoke coming out of the engine before I would have it looked at. Even then, I would have just anyone who said they could work on cars, try their hand at fixing the problem, sometimes for the cheapest price possible."

It was then that we knew we had a winner. A true storyteller; one that made an impression on us, to say the least. She captivated us with bold statements like when she said: "I also had 4 teens living at home and the debris and damage they inflicted on this car was so abusive, it was borderline criminal."

None of these statements had anything to do with making a car last forever. In fact, the statements were more like "How To Make Sure Your Car Doesn't Last Forever." But it's these details that are actually making the point: making the car the hero — even though it's not at the forefront of the story as the main character, but more of the supporting character role in the story. By the end of the story, the car's image is ingrained in your head. In your mind, you can visualize the car breaking down and getting worn out by young boys, all credit to a skilled writer and communicator.

Then, our contest participant dropped the bomb: " The odors alone that would emanate from the upholstery were 10 times worse than the worst smell imaginable, then quadruple that, to even get a hint of the smell that hit your face when you opened the door." That did it. I was forever going to envision this vivid description of her minivan. Finally, after some more abuse, the inevitable happened: the minivan went down in a blaze of glory as the writer describes she was driving home and while they were coming up the mountain, her minivan she caught on fire."

It was a sad day for sure when she lost her minivan, but she purchased a new vehicle after some time, and she closed with these wise words: "Her name is "Vivian", she is not new, but she is new to me, I was able to purchase her on February 23, 2018. That may seem like an ordinary date to anyone else but for me, it was the date I got my freedom, self-confidence, and dignity back. Since the minivan and before "Vivian", I had to ride the bus or bum rides to get anywhere and I had to do this for a couple of years."

She said not having her own vehicle for an extended period of time, having to rely on others or use public transportation brought crystal clear focus to her thoughts of a next car, and how to properly care for it as well.

Since then, Vivian's new owner pampers her new ride and has even made a new set of memories with her new car: "Vivian is a moving work of art and a mobile example of self-expression through pop culture references." says this year's winner J.D. from Ca.

"In the end, you may find that the best way to make your car last forever is to learn from experience. Time, care, maintenance, listening to the bumps and clunks, all make a dramatic difference in maintaining your vehicle for years to come," says CarCovers.com COO Jacob Koester

Get ready for this upcoming school year's essay contest. CarCovers.com encourages people to live their dreams, and we help to support them in their efforts. You could be the next winner.