We had leased a gray Honda Accord but decided to trade it in. "It's too big. I feel lost in it," my wife said. So we went to a VW dealership to get something smaller.

When the paperwork was done, and we were cleaning all of our things out of the old car, our daughter got very emotional and spent about ten minutes saying goodbye to her "carro gris." We'd only had the Honda for a short time, but she'd somehow grown attached. Or maybe this was her first experience with loss, I can't remember.