New Car Traditions

I bought my first all new car back in 1989 when I graduated from college. I knew what was in my budget and I stuck with it, buying a brand new 1989 Pontiac Grand Am LE two door coupe in sky blue, with GM's new Quad 4 engine. The monthly payments were reasonable and within my budget, and I felt good about having a brand new car. My parents and I drove the new car home, and the first thing they did was perform a little ritual where they threw coins into the trunk and main cabin of the car. They told me not to remove the coins, as they were there for good luck.

Throughout the years after that whenever I got a new car, my parents would continue to do the new car ritual of throwing coins in my car. I always assumed it was some old Chinese superstition. I got my first new car without the benefits of having my parents still alive, this week. I thought about the ritual of throwing coins in the car, and decided to do some research into this superstition. But to my surprise I couldn't find anything about this superstition as a Chinese one. Instead I found links to this practice as one starting in New York and New Jersey. Which made me wonder if someone coined my parents new car in 1973 when they bought their first all new car, a Chevrolet Impala, and they just kept that tradition through the years.

So later on this week, I'm going to coin my new car, in honor of a tradition my parents started so many years ago for me.