Car Shopping, Honda? Toyota? 2dr - 4dr... The Horror!

Wow, whirlwind week. Besides having to basically rebuild most of my system prefs, etc. in my Mac after a bizarre finder crash, plus having to have a new cable modem installed (and even the outside pole worked on), which all threw me terribly behind on my work, Sparky announced last week that (drumroll please...) I could FINALLY get another car!

Now, this may not sound like a big deal to some folks, but around this house it's earth shattering. Sparky is very slow to make decisions (it took us seven years to legally get married), and I have been bitching about my car almost since I got it, which was 1991. It was a present from my parents (no, I'm not ungrateful, really I'm not), but they picked it out and bought it without even asking my opinion. Granted, the car I had at the time was a supreme piece of crap (a 78 280Z with horrendous mechanical problems), I used to trade cars out on a regular basis, but never had the funds to get a new car so often my trade-ins brought more problems than the previous model. And I was a sports car freak, so I had a big disadvantage to begin with (my dad's favorite proverbs are "don't buy anyone else's problems" and don't ever buy a used sports car").

The only two brand new cars I ever had were bought for me by my parents, a 1979 light blue metallic Camaro, which I did at least get a voice in, and my current car, a black 1991 Olds Cutlass. With a four cylinder engine. Which was my first mental problem with it. The second (other than the fact that I had no say in it) was it was not a sports car, it was a mid-size almost family-type car. It's main redeeming graces were it was a 2 door and it was black. It had a "Quad 442" fuel-injected engine, which is a bit peppier and has more torque than most four cylinders, but unfortunately it was also a huge lemon. I began having engine problems when it was about 6 months old and they just continued non-stop, along with transmission problems and assorted other things you wouldn't expect from a brand new car.

We have spent enough to buy at least one more new car (or several nice used cars) in repairs over the last 13 years. It's been towed more than all the other cars I've owned combined, and I've owned a lot of old sports cars, dating back to a 1973 Corvette. The ironic thing is my parents bought it for me because they were worried about the reliability of the car I had. I honestly don't know how it has survived as long as it has except perhaps for the fact it's still under 100k. I used to drive downtown every day, but we rarely took driving trips (and I'm "the driver"), but in the last few years I've been working from home so it's been spared too much abuse.

But it hasn't been to the mechanic in probably 6-8 months, which is a long time for it, and the "to do" list has been mounting. Oil change, new tires, alignment, replace brake pads, replace windshield wipers, tune up, coolant system checkup, intermittantly working brake lights... and the final straw was - the AC & defroster stopped working. So Sparky's been having to drive lately. He hates to drive and I don't like to drive his big lumbering full-size car. But you can't drive in Houston in the summer with no AC, even at night. When I was young and foolish I went a year without working AC or heat in Austin and almost died, actually the cold got me even worse than the heat but both were unbearable. Plus the plates on my car expire at the end of the month just to add to the expense list.

So when he saw the list his brain just clicked a switch and said "no more". So he said "We need to get you another car. Not a new car, but something newer that works". See, Sparky doesn't believe in new cars, and my parents don't believe in used cars. My dad always changed my mom's car out when it would get more than about 4 or 5 years old or showed any signs of major problems. He's big on the reliability thing, bless his heart. It's funny, too, because she would maybe put a few thousand miles tops on any car she's had, even when she had to drive us kids around.

So we've spent the week going back and forth bartering on car prices while I've researched. He originally thought we could get a nice used car for around $10 or $11,000, but all I kept finding were $18 and $19,000 ones, so then he went up a bit to $15k, and now I think he's just tired of it, trusts my judgment a bit more and feels sorry for me and is telling me to just pick one out and he'll buy it. So we're probably going to end up in the price range I originally started in. I think as long as I keep it under $20 grand I'll be all right.

About a year ago, I was going nuts and did a lot of semi-serious research on cars and I'm very glad I did because it gave me a huge jumpstart this time. A car is a big thing for me, it's always been much too large a part of my personality and self-esteem and I really do love to drive. I've only had two four cylinder engines out of all the cars I've owned, the other was a Mustang, which I had to trade for and ended up being probably the second worst car I ever owned. The rest were hge V-8's, 2 Camaros, a Firebird, a Corvette, the 280Z (hmmm.. not sure what that engine was really), and I even owned a motorcycle. My ex-husband had the cheapest of taste in cars, and I remember just being moritified to have to drive some of his vehicles, I wanted to wear a mask I was so embarrassed. I mean, I used to go to Houston Speed & Sport and buy chrome air cleaner covers for my Camaro, I dueled out the exhaust, put bigger Radial TA tires on it... Sparky doesn't care about any of that, he's not even picky about color (though his favorite is red which I do NOT want), he just wants the AC to work, be roomy enough for comfort and for it to get him around on his little daily errands.

Me? The first thing I look at is performance and handling, then a stylish design, then if I could reach the pedals without having the dash & windshield right in my face (I'm short), then the color (black - grey preferred, though some of the dark blues & greens are very pretty, no beige or white please), then the interior amenities... When I started this quest my main requirements were power windows and locks, at least a V6 engine, automatic transmission, and a rear defroster. Now that I've been looking around, though, the power seats have moved up in importance, and the leather interiors aren't too bad either. Hate the sunroofs and the airbags, didn't want the anti-lock brakes, didn't like the 4 door sedans, wanted a 2 door coupe.

But now I'm reconsidering the 4 door thing, I don't have kids but I do occasionally have to haul more than one person around, and I'm not sure I want to continue torturing my friends and family by stuffing them into the back sead of a coupe. My current car has a decent back seat, but I've noticed the new coupes are really tight, even on the mid-size cars. And I'm a bit worried about visibility in the 2 doors since I'm so damned short.

My original pick was a 2002-2003 Toyota 2 door Solara, then I leaned toward a 2 door 2002 Honda Accord, now I'm debating a 4 door Accord. I was a pretty die-hard GM person till this last experience, but now I'm going for reliable. After reading tons of car reviews, and test driving two of the Accord coupes, I think the next step is to test drive a 4 door. And the good thing is they are a tiny bit cheaper, more plentiful (especially with the V6) so I have a better chance of getting the color I want. The new cars are so light, the modern four cylinders really aren't that bad, but I test drove one of each and the V6 won hands down. I really wanted to open it up, but I was afraid the salesman would have a coronary ;-)

So I've been scouring the internet and the newspaper trying to find, to quote Joh Kerry, real deals. If it's too good to be true forget it. And after spending an afternoon with a wishy-washy car salesman out in the blaring sun I'm more determined than ever to pick something and not window shop. And Sparky refuses to come with me until I actually pick something for certain (he hates shopping for anything but DVDs). Hopefully Monday I can go look at a four door I've singled out (it's WAY across town). I've looked at and printed out so many listings I can barely keep them straight in my head... And being obsessive compulsive I feel like I have to look at and read everything out there to educate myself. And I know whatever I pick will probably be in my garage for the next ten years minimum, so it's a big decision.

Posted by Morticia at July 04, 2004 04:27 AM | TrackBack