Vroom
I spent the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015 car shopping. Now, I have never thought of myself as a car person so my fussiness about what I wanted has kind of taken be by surprise.
I've driven a base model 1995 Honda Civic HB for the past 15 years. Teal blue, 5 speed manual. No AC, no power steering, no power ANYTHING . I've treated it as a utility vehicle and used it for everything from commuting to camping to road trips to hauling stuff around town. It looked like crap, has body damage and rust, and bumper stickers and duct tape are holding it together. My mom refuses to ride in it anymore, and honestly I was starting to worry about my safety on the road. I *think* it has airbags? In the fall my mechanic gave me the long list of what it needs, and considering the estimate as about 10 times the value of the car, I knew it was time.
An aside: I hate spending large amounts of money and I really hate having car payments. I've been 10 years car payment free. Also, finances are tight.
And the search began! I tried a bunch of different cars because I've only driven Honda Civics for 20 years (the Wee Honda was preceded by a red, 4 speed 1989 Wee Honda). I dealt with a lot of annoying car salesman who kept refusing to believe that "No, I'm REALLY not ready to buy a car today" means, no, I'm NOT READY TODAY, FUCK OFF! I made a lot of boring conversation with strangers. I realized that I have very. definite. thoughts. about. cars. And how much I'll pay for them. And how fancy they are. Why so fancy, cars?
The final ecision was a Toyota Matrix. Easy to drive and park in the city, lots of space, sits up higher than my low rider Honda. I bought one last weekend, and since them I've been coming to terms with: not being a Honda owner (who knew I felt like a Honda owner?) and driving an automatic car (I feel like a traitor!). It's red, it has a sunroof, it was under 10k. The Wee Honda is still parked at my house until I'm sure this will work out. I keep patting it's hood as reassurance. I haven't cried about it. Yet.
Of course I took the Toyota to my mechanic today to have it looked over and he found some stuff including things he thinks should have been covered under the state inspection and now I get to spend time debating crap with the dealer, driving it across town to get looked at, and being pissed because I am taking a road trip next week and I wanted this to be over. Hopefully it'll get worked out w/o me having to return the car and I can put this behind me because the entire process from making the decision to buy to the latest crap has made me miserable, and now I get to wrap it up with being politely confrontational.
I've driven a base model 1995 Honda Civic HB for the past 15 years. Teal blue, 5 speed manual. No AC, no power steering, no power ANYTHING . I've treated it as a utility vehicle and used it for everything from commuting to camping to road trips to hauling stuff around town. It looked like crap, has body damage and rust, and bumper stickers and duct tape are holding it together. My mom refuses to ride in it anymore, and honestly I was starting to worry about my safety on the road. I *think* it has airbags? In the fall my mechanic gave me the long list of what it needs, and considering the estimate as about 10 times the value of the car, I knew it was time.
An aside: I hate spending large amounts of money and I really hate having car payments. I've been 10 years car payment free. Also, finances are tight.
And the search began! I tried a bunch of different cars because I've only driven Honda Civics for 20 years (the Wee Honda was preceded by a red, 4 speed 1989 Wee Honda). I dealt with a lot of annoying car salesman who kept refusing to believe that "No, I'm REALLY not ready to buy a car today" means, no, I'm NOT READY TODAY, FUCK OFF! I made a lot of boring conversation with strangers. I realized that I have very. definite. thoughts. about. cars. And how much I'll pay for them. And how fancy they are. Why so fancy, cars?
The final ecision was a Toyota Matrix. Easy to drive and park in the city, lots of space, sits up higher than my low rider Honda. I bought one last weekend, and since them I've been coming to terms with: not being a Honda owner (who knew I felt like a Honda owner?) and driving an automatic car (I feel like a traitor!). It's red, it has a sunroof, it was under 10k. The Wee Honda is still parked at my house until I'm sure this will work out. I keep patting it's hood as reassurance. I haven't cried about it. Yet.
Of course I took the Toyota to my mechanic today to have it looked over and he found some stuff including things he thinks should have been covered under the state inspection and now I get to spend time debating crap with the dealer, driving it across town to get looked at, and being pissed because I am taking a road trip next week and I wanted this to be over. Hopefully it'll get worked out w/o me having to return the car and I can put this behind me because the entire process from making the decision to buy to the latest crap has made me miserable, and now I get to wrap it up with being politely confrontational.