...a new CAR!!!
Well, we bought a new car yesterday. I say we, because my wife and I made the decision to get the car together. She insists that it is “my” car, however as I’ll be the one driving it. This is because I had to turn in my 2002 Dodge Ram, which I had leased back April of 2002. I regret that decision entirely because I already had a 1999 Dodge Ram which I had purchased off of a previous three year lease. I decided for some stupid reason to trade it in and go back on a lease program. The 2002 Ram was all new then and it is a much better truck that the 1999 one was, but it wasn’t that much better. When I got it, gas prices were at around $1.20 a gallon. Now that Gas prices are out of control, it would have been nice to have gotten a new more fuel efficient vehicle but still held on to the truck for utility purposes. So, anyhow the truck is gone and it’s just as well because that truck was entirely too big. I got into several small bumps and scrapes that I now have to get fixed before the lease inspection is done.
So, I’ve downsized to a Scion xA:
It can get 31 MPG in the city and 38 on the highway. As opposed to the 11-12 MPG would get with the Ram. Now, don’t get me wrong. I liked the Ram, it was a great truck and if I could keep it I would, but I can’t. However, I don’t see gas prices dropping below $2.00 a gallon EVER AGAIN and I’ll be damned if I’m going to keep spending $55-60 a week filling up the tank in that thing just so I can drive back and forth to work. The main thing I will miss about not having a truck is the freedom it allows you to just pick up and move shit anywhere you want. It was always really easy to take my bicycle anywhere without the hassle of a bike rack or breaking it down.
I like the Scion xA a lot. I was convinced to get a small car after our trip to Ireland where we drove around for a week in a Fiat Punto. In Europe pretty much all cars are small cars. Here in the USA small cars are generally regarded as economy class only. They’re all about economy in gas mileage, economy in styling, and economy in power. They’re generally crap. The xA and Scion in general is different. I think they’re doing very well in recognizing that small cars don’t have to look like amorphous jelly beans and drive like a one horse buggy. I’m not going to change the consciousness of the USA automobile buying public by getting a small car, but I feel like I’m doing something about it by getting something different. I wish that the US auto companies would hop on this bandwagon and start making quality small cars that have excellent styling and quality componets. The Chevrolet Aveo doesn’t cut it. The Ford Focus is another jelly bean car. Chrysler doesn’t really have a small car, unless you count the PT Crusier. There’s the 2007 Dodge Caliber, but I didn’t have a chance to try that one out. The only car that we came close to getting other than the Scion was the Mazda3, which was a great car, but a little too pricy for what we could do at this time. I thought my Dad might be upset about buying a Toyoda imprint, but he was okay with it. Mainly because of this -- The Mazda3 is a Swedish made chassis engineered by a Japanese company that is owned by an American company. So, if there was any argument for “Buy American”, I think it goes out the window just by the mere existence of that car.
So, I’ve downsized to a Scion xA:
It can get 31 MPG in the city and 38 on the highway. As opposed to the 11-12 MPG would get with the Ram. Now, don’t get me wrong. I liked the Ram, it was a great truck and if I could keep it I would, but I can’t. However, I don’t see gas prices dropping below $2.00 a gallon EVER AGAIN and I’ll be damned if I’m going to keep spending $55-60 a week filling up the tank in that thing just so I can drive back and forth to work. The main thing I will miss about not having a truck is the freedom it allows you to just pick up and move shit anywhere you want. It was always really easy to take my bicycle anywhere without the hassle of a bike rack or breaking it down.
I like the Scion xA a lot. I was convinced to get a small car after our trip to Ireland where we drove around for a week in a Fiat Punto. In Europe pretty much all cars are small cars. Here in the USA small cars are generally regarded as economy class only. They’re all about economy in gas mileage, economy in styling, and economy in power. They’re generally crap. The xA and Scion in general is different. I think they’re doing very well in recognizing that small cars don’t have to look like amorphous jelly beans and drive like a one horse buggy. I’m not going to change the consciousness of the USA automobile buying public by getting a small car, but I feel like I’m doing something about it by getting something different. I wish that the US auto companies would hop on this bandwagon and start making quality small cars that have excellent styling and quality componets. The Chevrolet Aveo doesn’t cut it. The Ford Focus is another jelly bean car. Chrysler doesn’t really have a small car, unless you count the PT Crusier. There’s the 2007 Dodge Caliber, but I didn’t have a chance to try that one out. The only car that we came close to getting other than the Scion was the Mazda3, which was a great car, but a little too pricy for what we could do at this time. I thought my Dad might be upset about buying a Toyoda imprint, but he was okay with it. Mainly because of this -- The Mazda3 is a Swedish made chassis engineered by a Japanese company that is owned by an American company. So, if there was any argument for “Buy American”, I think it goes out the window just by the mere existence of that car.