Photos courtesy of Mirela Dobre, 2002

Yes, I did love and drove for six months this Nissan Sentra produced in 1989, automatic (making driving so easy).

Photo courtesy of Doru Chifor, 2003

Anything wrong with this automatic Ford Taurus CX 1998? Well, maybe only the fact it's not mine. I rented it from the University of South Carolina to attend the South Carolina Academy of Science Meeting in 2003, and drove it 554 km during the four days I had it.

Photo courtesy of El-Ayech Mahfoudi, 2004

Not only did I drive, but I also taught some elementary driving. Here I am "demonstrating" some driving details on an automatic Chevrolet Monte-Carlo.

Photo courtesy of Liliana Petrisor, 2005

Returning home means also returning to a different driving style. The 1994 station wagon Dacia pictured above is a manual car, perfect for carrying lots of items, whenever needed, as seen in the picture below, where my car is in the yard of my vacation house in Parscov, fulfilling its mission to carry several hosehold items from my main residence in Bucharest.

In the picture below, I am actually driving the car on the way from Bucharest to Parscov (just exiting Buzau).

Photo courtesy of Liliana Petrisor, 2007

July 2008. The old Dacia is gone, as new laws will soon prohibit their usage due to pollution (the Government says), but mostly due to the fact that "spice (money) must flow". Therefore, new times require a new car. Here I switch to "Italian driving" and take the pilot's seat in my new Fiat Doblo Panorama. My mom serves as the "beta tester". Beginnings could be rough.

Photo courtesy of Autoperugia, 2008

August 2008. Testing the new car in Cheile Turzii.

Photo courtesy of Razvan Mincu, 2008

April 2009. Not planning to own, just test driving the new Lexus IS 220d.

First photo courtesy of Lexus Romania, second of Liliana Petrisor, 2009

March 2014. Ready to test the new Renault Captur (automatic).

Photo courtesy of OSC, 2014