This issue’s car of the month belongs to Wyatt Mayfield (12) and his 2007 Cadillac Escalade. He’s been driving it ever since he got his license back in July 2016, and he says it’s never gotten old. It’s dark blue, which is Wyatt’s favorite color, and he likes the look of it on his car. He loves the size of the car, saying, “I can fit so many people in here, which is great for long trips when I need to drive people and potentially supplies like food.”
Wyatt’s Cadillac has over 150,000 miles, but he says it still runs really well. He also says “My car has a V8 [engine], so it goes really fast and it’s fun to drive.” He also likes how it’s tall, and the seat is higher up, allowing him to see more of the road in front of him than if he were in a smaller car. The car has an automatic transmission, which Wyatt likes better than stick shift.
Wyatt values all the adventures he’s been on in his car. He says, “I’ve taken it many places, like the beach, baseball tournaments, to paintball, and even to go skiing.” Skiing is one of Wyatt’s favorite pastimes, so he needs a car that can handle the snow. Luckily for him his Escalade has all-wheel drive. Wyatt says, “This car handles snow, rain, or even mud like it’s nothing, which is great for when I go skiing.”
But above all else, his favorite thing to do in his car is listen to music with his friends, and his favorite place to take it is his family’s lake house in Maryland, where in winter he goes skiing, and in summer he goes waterskiing.
Even though Wyatt loves all these aspects of his car, he says it is lacking in two very important areas; the first is fuel consumption. The car gets very poor mileage, which means more trips to the gas station for Wyatt, and more money out of his pocket.
The other issue is parking; since the car is so big, it is sometimes hard to find a parking spot that it can easily fit into. This leads to Wyatt having to search longer for parking spots that will work for him, especially in crowded areas like the nearby Mosaic District. But despite those two large flaws, Wyatt says, “I love this car, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”