VIDEO: Monica, 1973 Dodge Dart

WONYC: tell us who you are and what do you drive

Monica: My name is Monica. I am from St. Louis. I've lived in New York for about eight years. I work at Nordwic salon in Williamsburg. This is my car, Susan, and she is a 1973 Dodge Dart.

WONYC: What is the story behind this car?

Monica: When COVID happened, I stopped working for about five months. And then when we went back to work, I was kind of not into taking the subway. It was a little sketchy still. So I started looking at cars and I found this car on the Facebook marketplace. I bought it from another girl who lived in Astoria. It was a good deal, the car is in good condition. She had bought it from a collector. So when I got it, there were only 74,000 miles on it. Everything was good.

Susan and I are one and the same, with lots of accessories. I don't know. Susan just has this tease, I love this car. I feel like we have the same attitude when we don't wanna do something, we're not gonna do it. And we just like to get from point A to point B.

WONYC:Tell us about the accessories?

Monica: I feel like she just has a lot of flare. She has the rain guards. There's like ashtrays all over the car. We have like the shifter knob. There's just lots of cute *** on her. What I love about the car is it's like good alone time for me. I feel like at the end of the day after I leave the salon, I just sometimes like to ride the car and keep the music off and just chill in Susan, and it's like a good alone space for me. And it's pretty vital when you're working in the city.

WONYC: What's your favorite tune to listen to while driving?

Monica: “International players anthem” by Outcast is my favorite driving song.

WONYC: Tell us about a perfect moment you have in this car.

Monica: Ooh, I think good moments happen a lot in this car. I feel like people, it makes people talk to you. I've had so many people tell me that they used to have a Dodge dart. It's like a good community, like a car community that I was not part of before. I feel like I've had so many good conversations. People just tell you stories about their old car. So it's a good conversation piece, which is pretty nice. It's like a good community-building situation in this car.

WONYC: Any favorite destination with it?

Monica: Honestly, Susan is a woman of leisure. We don't like to go very fast so we don't go very far. She can definitely make it to the beach and back. Other than that, we just bop around town and do our thing, really.

WONYC: If you could add anything to this car, what would it be?

Monica: If I could add anything to this car, it would probably right now be a functioning air conditioning, cuz it's hot as hell. And also I think I need to get a muffler so it's a little bit louder. I'd just feel like we need a little more attention. So I think that's in the future for her.