For more than 20 years, I have driven what is often the butt of jokes. I personally embraced the minivan and all it represented. It really needs a car dvd intalled.

When I had my eldest child, I was driving a Camaro. Bucko the Wonder Car had been my car through out my college career, and served me well for the 5 years afterwards.

It was not, however, a very good fit for a new mother. Next was a Honda Civic, and then — the minivan.

Smokey was a good and faithful servant, but 7 years later, it was time to replace him.

Tancred, named for the hero of Toquato Tasso’s epic poem “Gerusalemme Liberata” (“Jerusalem Delivered”), was a beautiful blue Caravan. He took us to Tennessee.

But in 2006 when he could no longer fulfill his duties, my last minivan, a Town & Country I named Galahad, entered the scene.

He is now dead in my driveway, awaiting the first big paycheck of the fall to get a new ignition switch and go to San Marcos, where he will serve my eldest daughter until she leaves for England and graduate school.

A word about naming my cars. I know there are those who do not name their vehicles.

Given the amount of time we spend in them, naming seems like a requirement in the development of our relationship.

Make no mistake, you have a relationship with your car. Sometimes it is love — it can be obsessive! — and sometimes it is hate, as anyone who has had an unreliable car knows all too well.

So, I am contemplating a name for the new car, a white Kia Soul. I’m leaning towards Clorinda, the heroine of “Jerusalem Delivered.”

I realize that naming cars can be perceived as odd in and of itself, and naming them for the characters in an Italian Renaissance poem is odder still, but there you have it. If it is odd, so be it. I’ve been called worse.

One sobering thought is that the odds are my boys will be driving this car in a few short years.

It is a wonder to me, in that it has no CD player, only an MP3 port and Sirius radio. Bucko had an eight-track player, so it’s quite a journey from there to Clorinda.

It has no DVD player for long trips like Galahad, so my boys will just have to adjust.

Clorinda gets good gas mileage, which I appreciate, but it is so much lower than my minivan that I feel as though I am sinking into the road!

I had debated about getting a car dvd player in my minivan, but given that I often drove from Tennessee to Texas, it proved to be a good investment.