Benita Johnson of Columbia has owned her share of unreliable vehicles.

"I've had so many lemons, I don't think I can name them all," she said.

But her current car, a 1993 Plymouth Acclaim, runs like a dream. And getting it was a dream come true.

Johnson received her vehicle from Cars for Careers. Since its inception in 1998, the program has refurbished 100 donated cars and sold them at low cost to people who live in Howard County. It will celebrate that milestone with a ceremony today.

Transportation often can be the deciding factor for getting and keeping a job, Executive Director Roschell S. Shapiro said.

"Public transportation is not adequate and basically it does not cover the entire county," she said.

"The person could take maybe two or three hours to get to their job."

Parents bear the additional burden of balancing child care with a work schedule, she said.

About 20 social service agencies and other groups, including Grassroots, Community Action Council and Howard Community College, sponsor recipients who are given priority based on their need. Recipients must be licensed drivers with a job or a job offer.

The county Department of Social Services suggested the program to Johnson, who works as a child-support agent there. The Wilde Lake resident and mother of two boys received car No. 99 in August.

The 100th recipient chose to remain anonymous. "We get a lot of women who have left abusive situations," Shapiro explained.

Cars for Careers receives vehicles from donors, who get a tax credit. Instructors at Lincoln Technical Institute in Columbia evaluate cars to determine if repair is cost-effective. Otherwise, they are sold to a wholesaler.

Students supply the labor to fix the cars, and the program pays for parts. When the vehicles pass Maryland inspection, they're given to people in need.

The nonprofit group charges recipients $800 for the cars, an amount they rarely have to spare, said William C. O'Connor, board member and senior vice president at Citizens National Bank in Laurel.

The bank provides loans which, if they maintain the $65 payments, serve a second purpose.

"Most of these individuals do not have strong credit histories," O'Connor said. The program offers an opportunity, "on a relatively inexpensive basis, to repair their credit as well."

Without good credit, low- to moderate-income people often are forced to buy less-reliable cars that eventually require extensive repairs.

"Most of the cars, my father would say 'just get rid of it' because it was nickel-and-diming me into the poorhouse," Johnson said.

Recipients pay for their title, tags and insurance, but the program also gives each recipient a short course in car maintenance and a six-month warranty and a year's membership in AAA.

Johnson said she might not need that aid, however. She knows all too much about diagnosing car woes, she said, because her friends often seek her mechanical opinion.

Johnson's struggles with acquiring and maintaining a car became acute years ago, after a gray Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera died. "The engine went out with that one," she said.

In 2000, she purchased a 1998 Ford Taurus that she knew she could not afford -- payments were $468 a month. To try to meet payments, Johnson worked 25 hours a week at an Exxon station in Columbia.

The 37-year-old single mother said she has worked multiple jobs since she was 14, except during football season so she could drive her sons to practice and attend their games.

"To me it's equally important that they're not cheated out of things that they need to do," Johnson said.

She fell far behind in payments, and the car was repossessed in January. Without it, she couldn't work a second job.

"Most places wanted you to work [evenings] 6 to 9 or 6 to 10," but because it took so long on the bus Johnson could not guarantee she could arrive on time.

It took 1 1/2 hours to ride a bus between her Wilde Lake home and her job in the Department of Social Services building in Columbia Gateway Center, a 12-minute trip in the light-blue car she has named Blessing "because she truly, truly, truly was a blessing."

Now she can sleep in instead of getting up at 5 a.m. to arrive at her job a few minutes before 8 a.m.

The car bears testimony to its former life, with parking permits for St. Mary's College and other stickers on its bumper.

Johnson does not think she will trade in the car after it is paid off, even though it has 168,000 miles on it. "She runs so nice, I don't see that happening," she said.