Minnesota Public Radio Car Donation Review

“The vehicle soon garnered the name ‘Duck Truck’, and we all loved driving around town and having people recognize it.”

The duck truck helped me form a new family.

I’d separated from my ex-husband in 2017, facilitated by the 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee my parents gave me instead of salvaging it. Driving down 4th St in January 2019 with my kids, towards an NAACP meeting, it stalled out and died. The mechanics later said the transmission looked like a strawberry milkshake. Yikes! I needed a car, and felt like I needed it fast; I had to drive kids to school, and myself to work. I had about $4000 cash to spend.

I test drove an old Honda Pilot; when I met the seller, she told me that the interior heat didn’t work so I’d have to scrape inside the windshield, and advised me that the splatter on the ceiling upholstery was deer blood from an earlier accident, but it’d been there for years so…. The second car I drove was a maroon 1997 Toyota 4Runner; having learned to drive on Jeeps, it felt easy and familiar. Visually, it was in great condition for its age. My mechanic said it didn’t look quite as good underneath, but I still bought it.

I learned it had been around Duluth most of its life; the previous owners had been approached by the original owner, recognizing a grouse and hunting dog decal on the window. My insurance agent laughed at me for buying an even OLDER car, and it wasn’t cheap; over the next two years I put in brakes, a new battery (on one of those -30 days), new alternator, new tires. But the most important change was letting my kids, and my new partner’s kids, design a new paint job.

My partner and his sons (then 8 & 11) had moved in over the summer. One weekend I visited a friend in Minneapolis; while she and I were spray painting radiator covers in her backyard, I told my sons (then 5 & 8) that they could paint the 4Runner, only on the silver parts. When I checked on them a few minutes later, well, apparently the instructions didn’t compute. We developed a full paint job plan. I’d done this for two cars when I was in high school (one on my senior prom day; I attended with a bright farmer sunburn and green paint on my nose).

My partner’s 11 year old son took charge and suggested a hot pink base with ducks. He designed the duck stencils and I helped him cut them out. Together, we taped up all the windows and chrome, and spent a day and $50 spray painting it pink. For the next three weeks I drove around in what I hadn’t realized would look like the Barbiemobile, chrome and pink, but soon we added the green and yellow duck stencils, and the oldest climbed up on top to freehand a smiley face.

The vehicle soon garnered the name “Duck Truck”, and we all loved driving around town and having people recognize it. A woman waited by the car for me at Goodwill, just to say she’d seen it in her neighborhood. In a serendipitous turn, Planned Parenthood wrapped a DTA bus in exactly the same shade right then; I still feel kinship with that bus!

I never put more than 10,000 miles on it in the 27 months I had it; part of that was pandemic, but now the frame is about to rust out and when the engine started smoking and stalling too, I knew it was time. I sure will miss looking out the front window and seeing it on the street – a neighbor even came out this morning with a send-off blessing – but it will be part of my new family’s origin story forever. I hope MPR can find buyers for its parts, and maybe – maybe? – one day I’ll see another old 4Runner with a pink door or hood driving down the street.

Thank You, Audrey!

When you donate your car to Minnesota Public Radio, you’re driving public radio further. From Morning Edition to All Things Considered on MPR News, to the broadcasts of the Minnesota Orchestra on Classical Minnesota Public Radio, to the best local and independent music on The Current – your gift makes a difference at MPR. Vehicles donated to MPR fuel the trusted news, thoughtful conversations, and hand-picked music that is an essential part of your day.  

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