Sunday, August 19, 2007

Test Drive Mania

So I have been on the hunt to pick out my next new vehicle. As some of you know, my truck lease ends in October, and my dealership called me in to offer to buy me out early.
My original plan was to get something new, small and fuel efficient. Then I realized that I have really gotten used to having a truck and it's usefulness. At that point, the plan switched to getting a compact pick-up with four doors. I test drove the Tacoma and really liked it. It sat like a car, had pretty good room in the back seat, and still had 3/4 of a bed in it. Unfortunately it was outside of the price limits that I had set myself. So I had to open up to new options.
I figured that I have a small trailer, so I should get a cheap car that I could put a hitch on for the few times I need to haul stuff. I looked at the Yaris hatchback, but I couldn't get my legs in under the steering wheel. Then I looked at the Scion XD and XB. The XD looked cool, and had decent power, but was too cramped. The XB was solid, had good power and good cargo capacity. It also didn't feel cheap, that is until I drove the Honda Civic Coupe. It was an order of magnitude more solid, fun to drive, but lacked in capacity and the very fuel efficient motor had no get up and go. I had originally stopped at the Honda dealer to drive a Fit, but he said there was a 6 month waiting list and he didn't even have one to test drive. After waiting nine months for the Prius, I wasn't doing that again, especially since come Oct 1 I had to give up the truck.
Friday, I went online at work to look at some of the discounts we get at the various companies. The Chrysler/Dodge deals were really good, and almost made me want to get one. The Ford/Mazda deals were also pretty good, so I thought that I should go test drive a Mazda 3. It was pretty good. It had a good bit of zoom-zoom, and cabinocity, overall it came in tied with the XB for my new car.
Then I did the unthinkable, but before I tell you that, I to tell you another story. When I was shopping for my first car, the small used car lot up the highway from my house had a 1965 midnight blue Ford Mustang. It was the car I had dreamed about. Stylish, muscular, rad. I sooo wanted it, bad. My brother looked at it and said that there were way too many things that need repair/restoration and thus it was out. We searched some more and found an 81 yellow 4 cylinder Mustang hatchback. Even though it was not the uber-Stang, the lost one was, it was a Mustang. I had to have it. I drove that all through high school, picked up the Sexy Blonde every morning, and probably crammed like 75000 miles on it over 3 years. I would blow people away at stoplights, I could put the backseat down and through tons of stuff in the back. I put a CB radio in it (that was pre-cellphone explosion era) and only ever had one accident, where I hit a deer.
The month before I was to ship out to college, the clutch and transmission blew. I was devastated. I didn't know what to do. It really wasn't worth the money to fix it (after said deer crash, tons of miles, and the beating it got from me) so I parked it and found a new beater. A brown Chevy Cavalier sedan. It was cheap and was supposed to get good mileage. It was the Mach V, Piece of Shit. It got like 13 MPG, had no get up and go and was no successor to the yellow Stang (Afore mentioned girlfriend subsequently inherited it as her first car).
I am set to test drive the last car under consideration tomorrow after work, we'll see how it goes.

5 comments:

Syl said...

Rad? Did you just use the word Rad? If this is what a Mustang is going to do to you...

Jaysan said...

I could start using 'Epic' instead...

Pusher said...

...And? I confess, I do like the recent-ish redesign of the Mustang. But I'm also tremendously amused that you started out with fuel efficient, moved to hauling capacity, and may be ending up with a revamped version of a muscle car, which is kinda neither. :-) Still, there would be a great deal of poetry in you having another 'stang.

Ms. Huis Herself said...

I second Pusher's "...and?" What's news? Did you segue to a Segway? (*snort*)

Ms. Huis Herself said...

Oh cool! How'd you do your poll?