Finding a new (used) car

So as we all know, Birdy is dead (at least for now), and even when she was running she wasn't exactly The Best.  This fall, since I'm going to be commuting about an hour and a half to where I'm gonna go to school, I need to have a car that is 1) reliable, and 2) thrifty with the gas.  Well that's not hard--I could easily get another Corolla and be done with it.  Jamie's car, as far as I know, has never had any maintenance required other than standard stuff--brakes, oil changes, whatever.  No weird noises, no awkward starts.  Gas mileage runs a steady 36 or so when he's driving, and a steady 34 or so when I'm driving (I refuse to use cruise, and I'm more of a maniac, but maybe I'll discuss that in another post).

My dad had an '89 Corolla up until 2004.  Toy-Toy had 275,000 miles or something on her by the time she died.  And even then it wasn't the engine--I think the AC went out or something, and it would have cost twice the Kelley Blue Book value of the car to replace it.  So then Dad got a '98 Corolla (Goldie), who went on to last him to 296,000 miles, up until 2010 (my dad drives a lot).  It's true that by the end the car looked like absolute crap, the gas mileage was not as good as it had been (38 at one point!), the inside lights didn't come on when the headlights were on, and the transmission didn't sound right.  Now my dad is not the most conscientious person about maintenance.  He clutters up the car, he reaches with his keys in his hand to do something and manages to scratch up the headliner, he breaks door handles off from the inside.  And these cars have lasted him.  My mom's car was also a Corolla.  A nice shiny silver 2002 LE, now given over to my father.  Sylvia (who had power doors and power locks and was much froofier than Goldie and also had the benefit of not being that awful champagne color) is now in the clutches of my father, and we'll see how long she lasts.  I'm pretty sure that if he's careful she could last to 300,000 miles.  These are high quality cars.

But let me tell you something.  I don't want any more Corollas.

I have gone through three Corollas in my family.  Then I married a man with a Corolla.  They're great cars, but I've had them all my life.  I know what the Toyota interior looks like.  None of the gadgets confuse me.  I know the engine will be there when I need it, but it's nothing that blows anyone's socks off.  It's not leathery and luxurious, it's not pretty on the outside, you can't even say it's sporty like you maybe could with a Civic.  Getting a new one for myself would give me no excitement because there would be no novelty.  And it's not like the Corolla is the only reliable car with good gas mileage ever made.  Is it?

Sure it's not.  You have the Civic.  And um...  Hmm.  The problem is that for us, "good gas mileage" means over 30 for city and highway both.  I could get an older Prius, that's in my budget--but those batteries sure are expensive to replace, I've heard they're fairly unreliable (it's a newish technology though, so that's somewhat to be expected), and there's no way I could autocross it.  Yes, I would also like to be able to autocross my new car.  So we go with the Civic?

Well no, we don't, because I'd like to have some cargo space.  When Jamie and I were in Columbia, we wanted to buy a coffee table, but we realized it wouldn't ever be able to fit in our car back to Atlanta.  We couldn't take it from the store either, since Dad owns a Corolla too.  So, I pretty much decided then and there that if a car can't fit a coffee table I don't much want it.  I could autocross a Golf, and I'm pretty sure a Golf or a GTI could fit a coffee table.  But it has to have good gas mileage, and that car's not the best for it (especially when it's carrying around all of my coffee tables).  Also, the model years I can afford are all within that disgusting generation where the Golf looks really uncertain.  In the early nineties it looked boxy (but sharp and aggressive), in newer years it looks modern and cute, but between those times it just looks clunky and depressing.  If I had one I would name it Ugly and try to keep my eyes closed when I was getting in.

Also entering into the mix is the fact that I want kind of a nicer car.  Jamie's going to be a lawyer, and I imagine once we ditch Zyvelles, he's gonna be getting a 3-series or something like that, and it would look pretty silly if he had a 3-series and I had an old Golf that looked even older than it was.  I like Saabs--if I pushed my luck I could get a 2004 9-3 sedan.  Problem is you rarely find that in a stick, because people content themselves with the shiftable automatic.  "Aw well you can shift it anyway!"  Sure...but it's just not as fun and it feels like cheating.  I like Volvos, and I think some of the newish S40s are in my range.  No BMWs though, because even the slightly older ones are absolutely hideous (good marketing move, by the way).  The only Audis I can afford also look pretty dated.  And the thing about getting a lovely luxurious (but older and still expensive) car is that those brands cost much more money to fix.  My old crappy '98 Altima was pretty cheap when it came to new AC compressor clutches, but from what my mechanic told me, I was lucky.  "Your Saabs and your Volvos are gonna cost much much more.  You have a car that is really cheap to maintain, so that's great!"  Well, it's only great until my cheap car dies and I want a Saab or a Volvo.

And I mean, I could also go for a used Mini (but while it might have a six-speed manual and leather, it would also be smaller than the Corolla).  I absolutely unreasonably love the older Mazda 6s, but they get bad gas mileage, and apparently 165 HP or whatever it is isn't quite enough to make that beast peppy.  New Sentras are cute, but do I really want to risk it on another Nissan being as the one I had was such utter crap?  But while we're on Nissan, the Versa is a really reasonable hatch.  Decent gas mileage (nowhere near what Jamie wants, though) with crap-tons of room, and ugly as it is, I guess I could show up at an autocross with it even though folks would giggle.  Better than a Park Avenue or something.  And the car I want most, the Honda Fit, is too new, so all the used ones are at least a couple grand out of my budget.  I think maybe if I could find a Mazda3 hatch in leather with a stickshift I would be happy, because they have nice air vents and cargo space, even if they don't get the best mileage.

Will keep you posted.  August is approaching, so there will be a couple really stressful weeks at the beginning of that month and then I'll just close my eyes and buy something orange.

Ferrari 360 Modena

Saw one of these one the way to my part time job.
...
...Dangit, the photo insert isn't working, and I'm lazy.  Here is a link to a picture: http://cdn-www.rsportscars.com/images/ferrari/2002-ferrari-360-modena-f1/ferrari360f1_front.jpg  Please click on it, because you'll need to see it to understand the rest of the post.

I was turning left out of my apartment complex, and before I turned I had to wait on this red car coming from the right.  I didn't pay attention to what it was, and because it was going exactly the speed limit (guess I don't blame them) I swiftly caught up.  I saw the distinctive rear, thought I saw the Ferrari insignia but got a little closer just to make sure, and yup, there it was.  I guessed it was a Modena from the back, and I was beginning to worry that I couldn't pass the car in order to see the rest of it and make sure.  (Although there were opportunities to, how much of a douchebag would I have looked like speeding past a Ferrari in Jamie's Corolla?  "HA HA FERRARI 360 MODENA see I am JUST AS GOOD AS YOU!"  ...Not.  Anyway.)  Finally we came to a street where I had to turn left, and just as I had given up all hope he got in the right turn lane; I hit the gas hard enough that I could come up alongside him just before he turned, and yup, it was pretty definitely a Modena although I did still check on MSN later.  I swear that just seeing that car made my morning 5 points better on a scale of 10, which brought my morning up to approximately a 12.

You see these cars on TV, on Top Gear and in spy movies, but you don't really see them in real life.  And although I've seen other expensive cars in person (Nissan GTR, a couple Bentleys, a Rolls, a couple Vipers, probably some ZR1s without knowing), there's something about the exclusiveness of Ferraris and how exotic and half-ridiculous they are that just made me happy to look at this one--even if according to MSN the newest it could be is seven years old.  It's such a strange feeling, because even though I know realistically that I will never own a car like that (and no matter how much I love the Exige it isn't even in the class of Ferraris), some small stupid part of me still thinks that maybe someday I could drive one.  And so seeing it is enough to wake up that small stupid part of me and get me dreaming.

In more boring news, sorry I haven't updated more.  I could lie and say I have a life, but really I just haven't had much exciting driving stuff to report lately, being as Jamie and I are sharing his car and I really only drive it to the store and to my small job on the weekend.  I guess I could comment on the sheer idiocy of Atlanta drivers, or how my husband is slowly descending into becoming an Atlanta driver, but after a certain period of time spent living here, it doesn't really seem remarkable when a BMW cuts in front of you right before the red light and then refuses to notice when it turns green, or when cars come blindly into the oncoming lane to go around people in front of them who are, yes, planning to turn left.  I suspect that once I get my brand new luxurious used car, I will drive more.  What exactly that car will be is a different story entirely, and I might actually make a post about that soon.