The story of the invisible car and the silver Durango

My wife called it “the invisible car.” We bought it in 2002 after the third or fourth unsuccessful attempt at getting Ford to honor warranty work on her ’00 Focus ZTS. We finally gave up and traded it in on a super-low-mileage ’99 Toyota Camry.

- CHRISTIAN HAZEL CHRISTIAN

The Camry was roomier, quieter, more comfortable, and about as economical as the smaller Focus. The only drawback, as we came to discover, was the bronzey-metallic “Sable Pearl” color. My wife started commuting to work in the Camry and I in my ’85 4Runner, Jeeps, and other 4x4s. But about every other month she’d come home white as a sheet talking about nearly getting run off the road or having somebody almost sideswipe her.