Bought a car
A cargo van, really, a Ram Promaster City. I'd meant to buy used, but sometimes I just get carried away, so now I have a brand new vehicle. It's a 2015, so I saved a few thousand based on Gresham Dodge wanting it gone.
Since it's a cargo van, I had to deal with the commercial vehicle sales guy, but he was nice enough and quite eager to sell me the vehicle, though he made no effort to push me into the more spendy models. I didn't want to pay for a lot of fancy features, since all the new vehicle features these days seem fancy to me. It does have AC & cupholders, which are the things I most miss having. Power windows & mirrors, Bluetooth compatible (salesman helped me get it set up with my phone), and steering wheel controls for the radio/Bluetooth thing. Those are all pretty useful features, and I'm happy to have them, I don't need anything fancier than that.
Here's some pics:
I did pay a few hundred for the cargo mat in back. The tiedowns are standard equipment, but the van comes with just the metal floor. I didn't want it damaged, and want it easy to clean, so I added the official Mopar cargo mat. I could have rigged something up, but I like having something properly fitted to the vehicle.
And yes, it's a bit of overkill with my 3 smallish dogs, I don't really need quite this much cargo room. But the vehicle price and gas mileage are as good or better as I could get with a vehicle with more moderate cargo space. So, why not get it, and have all the space I will ever need? It's also drilled for a roof rack, and can tow 2000 lbs if I ever want to haul even more stuff. It's not huge, it's footprint is minivan sized, just well designed for cargo moving.
It's also got just a little bit of ground clearance (not like a 4wd, but not a groundhugger, either), and a reasonably stout suspension, which was my other draw to this particular vehicle. If I want to drive down logging roads to go hiking, I don't have to worry too much about the car, it should be able to take it. I really don't need or want an offroad vehicle, but I do want something that can take a bit of rough road safely.
Of course, now I'm going to be mad if anybody hits my car. The truck was good because I didn't care. Hit my truck? That's your problem, not mine. But I don't want anything to happen to my shiny new car! Truck was being super weird on my drive to get rid of it, though, so I'm glad it's gone. The "check the gauges" light came on, I looked, and the temperature gauge was all the way up. Just when I was going to pull over and check the coolant, the light went off, and the gauge dropped down. But if I hadn't been trading it, I'd have had to get it looked at. Now? Not my problem.
Since it's a cargo van, I had to deal with the commercial vehicle sales guy, but he was nice enough and quite eager to sell me the vehicle, though he made no effort to push me into the more spendy models. I didn't want to pay for a lot of fancy features, since all the new vehicle features these days seem fancy to me. It does have AC & cupholders, which are the things I most miss having. Power windows & mirrors, Bluetooth compatible (salesman helped me get it set up with my phone), and steering wheel controls for the radio/Bluetooth thing. Those are all pretty useful features, and I'm happy to have them, I don't need anything fancier than that.
Here's some pics:
I did pay a few hundred for the cargo mat in back. The tiedowns are standard equipment, but the van comes with just the metal floor. I didn't want it damaged, and want it easy to clean, so I added the official Mopar cargo mat. I could have rigged something up, but I like having something properly fitted to the vehicle.
And yes, it's a bit of overkill with my 3 smallish dogs, I don't really need quite this much cargo room. But the vehicle price and gas mileage are as good or better as I could get with a vehicle with more moderate cargo space. So, why not get it, and have all the space I will ever need? It's also drilled for a roof rack, and can tow 2000 lbs if I ever want to haul even more stuff. It's not huge, it's footprint is minivan sized, just well designed for cargo moving.
It's also got just a little bit of ground clearance (not like a 4wd, but not a groundhugger, either), and a reasonably stout suspension, which was my other draw to this particular vehicle. If I want to drive down logging roads to go hiking, I don't have to worry too much about the car, it should be able to take it. I really don't need or want an offroad vehicle, but I do want something that can take a bit of rough road safely.
Of course, now I'm going to be mad if anybody hits my car. The truck was good because I didn't care. Hit my truck? That's your problem, not mine. But I don't want anything to happen to my shiny new car! Truck was being super weird on my drive to get rid of it, though, so I'm glad it's gone. The "check the gauges" light came on, I looked, and the temperature gauge was all the way up. Just when I was going to pull over and check the coolant, the light went off, and the gauge dropped down. But if I hadn't been trading it, I'd have had to get it looked at. Now? Not my problem.