Robert Yang, design and kid products blogger at coochicoos, has launched a new blog focusing on the family car called Car and Caboodle. I have to confess that one of my many character flaws in a politically incorrect, and blatantly consumeristic obsession with cars. You can take the boy out of Dallas…

I read Edmunds and Jalopnik and Consumer Reports obsessively, the car review is the first (and sometimes only) thing that I read in the Sunday Times. So when Robert asked me to take a pop quiz about our family car for the site, I jumped at it. And can I please say, that I am chest pounding proud of my minivan. I’m a minivan man, and you SUV drivers can kiss my ass.

MY FAMILY, MY CAR
POP QUIZ

*Name:
Clay Nichols

*Where I live:
Austin, Texas

*Our Family Car:
2003 Mazda MPV

*Number of Kids:
3

*Ages:
9,6,3

Thing I love most about my car:
Almost paid for, yet only 30K miles.

Thing I hate most about my car:
All the rubber-neckers and paparazzi.

Nicknames we call the car:
Love Machine of Volcanic Hotness, the van.

I don’t leave home without:
Huge tub of pre-moistened Costco wipes

Longest road trip with kids:
5 hrs down to Port Aransas on the Texas Gulf Coast. The kids freaked a bit on the short ferry ride to the island, but porpoises showed up and saved the day.

Favorite driving music when alone:
Son Volt, Wilco, Kathleen Edwards, Amos Lee, Ryan Adams

Favorite driving music with kids in the car:
Jack Johnson, Calexico, Shaggy, Van Morrison

Worst car moment:
I have a terrible sense of direction. I have lived in Austin for over 15 years and still can’t make it to the gas station without getting lost. Not such a big deal until I had kids. My Oldest, who is very much an oldest child, hates to be late. So for five years, starting when the kid is about four, whether we’re going to the grocery store or the wilds of downtown, every time the kids gets buckled in, my son would always ask “do you know where you’re going?” To have your competency called into question every time you settle behind the wheel can be tough on a guys ego. So I bought a Garmin.

Last car before kids:
1996 VW Passat GTX Station wagon – so I was pretty domesticated even before kids.

Weirdest item in the family car right now:
My wife’s purse. She leaves it there 24/7. Who the hell leaves their most valuable possessions in the car all the time? And she never locks the car. I’m announcing this hoping one of you will take the opportunity to teach my wife a lesson and make a few bucks in the process.

Drive thru dining? (Yes or No) Where?
No way. I’m one of those people. Car…must…be…spotless.

*My next car will really be a:
Volvo C30 in a crazy two-tone color