Lake County >> For over 30 years, Annie Kaa has never owned any car other than her 1963 Mercury Comet. It’s been her only source of transportation, going to and from work, shuffling around children and grandchildren and tossing groceries in the back seat. Kaa’s granddaughter even learned to drive in the Comet when she was 16 years old.
Kaa calls her car the Princess.
It was 1985 and Kaa was working for Prestige Lincoln Mercury in Santa Rosa. Her manager knew she was looking for a car, and so when a woman traded in her ‘63 Mercury Comet for a new model, the manager came running downstairs to tell Kaa he’d found her a car. But it was a joke. The dealerships didn’t want the car and weren’t planning to add it to the inventory, instead opting to wholesale it off.
But the moment Kaa laid eyes on the Princess, she knew she had to have the white and silver beauty. “I fell in love with her immediately,” she recalled. “I had to beg a little, but they ended up making the deal with me.”
For Kaa, it was all about looks. She’d always loved cars from the ‘50s and ‘60s and she found the ‘63 too beautiful to leave behind. She bestowed the nickname upon the car not long after driving her off the lot. “She was so beautiful, she couldn’t be anything else but the Princess,” said Kaa. She knows her car is a beauty, but she didn’t realize others would feel the same. When she began driving it she wondered why people were always staring at her. Other drivers would pass her at a snail’s pace and she had no idea why. Finally, it occurred to her that they were looking at the car. Often when she exits a store, she’ll come upon two or three people circling the Comet curiously.
She doesn’t see the fuss. “She’s just my daily driver car,” Kaa said. “I never thought of her any other way, she was my car. When I got her I never thought of her as being an antique.”
Although she’s been around cars for much of her life, working at dealerships as a DMV representative, Kaa was never the mechanical type. Not long after she bought the Princess, that changed. She’s since replaced the engine, but back when she first got the car the spark plugs had to be changed about every three weeks. Visiting a mechanic that often was costly, so she learned how to switch out the plugs herself. Then she learned how to change the oil and the wires. She still took the car in for major repairs, but she had a firm grasp on the little fixes.
The fact that the car is 53 years old helps the situation. Newer vehicles are practically computers inside, and would be next to impossible for Kaa to fix on her own. Older cars are much easier to work on.
She’s not worried about her car puttering to a stop on the side of the road. “How many times did the newer cars break down?” she pointed out. “I have friends that all have later model cars than me … their car is in the garage more than mine is.”
As far as Kaa knows, there isn’t another car like her’s here in Lake County. About a decade ago she met a man with three Comets, but he’s since sold them. If someone else a car like hers, Kaa thinks she would know.
Despite her unique vehicle, Kaa has never joined a car club or entered the Princess in any shows. She doesn’t feel her car is up to par, and it’s expensive to do the work required for a show. She’s needed to replace the upholstery for years, but she’s never found someone willing to do it at an affordable price.
Kaa is fine with it though. She doesn’t need to enter her car in a show. She’s happy just driving it.
She does enjoy classic cars and if she could manage it, she’d definitely own more than one. “I’ve always loved older cars and I love my Princess,” she said. “If I was a rich person I would indeed have a collection of cars and they’d each have their own garage.”
She has no plans to sell her ‘63 Mercury Comet, even once she can no longer drive it. There are just too many memories — 30 years worth of them — to part with it. So once she can no longer keep the car, it’ll go to her 19-year-old grandson who’s rather fond of the Princess. He’s promised that he won’t make any major changes, keeping it as close to the original as possible. And Kaa certainly is a stickler for the details. Even the gas cap is the original make. “I would never let somebody have it, if I could help it, that would change the originality of the car,” she said.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
