(no subject)
Mar. 21st, 2004 09:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katallisonAhhh ... it's most pleasant to start Sunday off with a mimosa, made with leftover champagne from last night's festive dinner with P. We have an anniversary-of-sorts in late March, a moveable feast, and so we celebrated last night with champagne and pistachio-crusted sea bass (*marvellous*--recipe can be found here). And we had our usual dispute about just how long we've been together; neither of us can recall with certainty whether we hooked up in '92 or '93, so it's been either 11 or 12 years. Golly.
We were also sort-of-celebrating a sort-of-decision I may perhaps have made ...
OK, for a while now I've been contemplating replacing my current car, the pretty-reliable-but-very-boring '92 Plymouth Sundance with 133,000 miles on it that I got from my brother. I don't *need* to replace it; it's still running OK, the rust isn't too bad yet, I could likely squeeze another year or two out of it. But I really, really would like to have a car with a few modern conveniences like A/C and a CD player and cupholders. And which I can feel confident will not die suddenly, stranding me in a remote location on a wintry night.
So the plan had been to shop around and find a good, low-mileage used Civic, or maybe a Corolla. A nice, sensible car. And I have dutifully searched, setting good realistic practical criteria, and found that there's a lot of cars on the market that would fill the bill.
But lo, in the middle of my sensible, realistic, level-headed proceedings, I was blindsided. As has befallen so many others, my steady settling into pragmatic middle age was ripped asunder by the lightning-bolt of Passion. Before I knew what had happened, I was smitten, moonstruck, infatuated. My head was turned, my heart was captured, my common sense went out the window.
Yes, mortifying though it is to confess, I have fallen like a ton of bricks for the Mini Cooper.
This is *mortifying.* I feel like a sedate businessman with a passion for a chorus girl. I know all the reasons why indulging this sudden fit would be irrational, including:
--It's little and teeny and if I ever need to haul stuff, I'm SOL.
--It costs at least $5000 more than the hypothetical used Civic I could/should buy instead.
--There are a *lot* of other interesting, useful, or more significant things I could do with that $5000.
--A car is not an investment, it is a money hole. It will only depreciate in value.
--Buying a *new* car is particularly stupid, on account of the depreciation factor.
Apart from the irrationality, what's especially disturbing to me about this infatuation is that it forces me to revise one element of my Definition of Self, namely I am not someone who cares about cars. My philosophy has always been that a car is a by-god utility, a machine for getting you from one place to another, and the only thing that matters is that it do so dependably, efficiently and cheaply. Spending a penny on anything beyond those minimum criteria is not something I do.
Except. Ahem. I really, really want a Mini.
So I went and test-drove one yesterday; I've gotten preapproved financing (at 3.85%, not bad); I've discovered I could insure it at Geico for about the same as I'm paying State Farm to insure my clunky Plymouth (clearly State Farm's been grossly overcharging me for years now, dammit). I'm going to do another test-drive on Monday, and at that point I should make up my flippin' mind one way or ther other. Even if I closed the deal today, it would take two months for it to be delivered (that's how back-ordered they are), so I'd have plenty of time to wallow in Buyer's Remorse.
Anyway -- for the first time, I'm actually posting a dopey poll soliciting advice. (Let's see if this works...)
[Poll #266271]
We were also sort-of-celebrating a sort-of-decision I may perhaps have made ...
OK, for a while now I've been contemplating replacing my current car, the pretty-reliable-but-very-boring '92 Plymouth Sundance with 133,000 miles on it that I got from my brother. I don't *need* to replace it; it's still running OK, the rust isn't too bad yet, I could likely squeeze another year or two out of it. But I really, really would like to have a car with a few modern conveniences like A/C and a CD player and cupholders. And which I can feel confident will not die suddenly, stranding me in a remote location on a wintry night.
So the plan had been to shop around and find a good, low-mileage used Civic, or maybe a Corolla. A nice, sensible car. And I have dutifully searched, setting good realistic practical criteria, and found that there's a lot of cars on the market that would fill the bill.
But lo, in the middle of my sensible, realistic, level-headed proceedings, I was blindsided. As has befallen so many others, my steady settling into pragmatic middle age was ripped asunder by the lightning-bolt of Passion. Before I knew what had happened, I was smitten, moonstruck, infatuated. My head was turned, my heart was captured, my common sense went out the window.
Yes, mortifying though it is to confess, I have fallen like a ton of bricks for the Mini Cooper.
This is *mortifying.* I feel like a sedate businessman with a passion for a chorus girl. I know all the reasons why indulging this sudden fit would be irrational, including:
--It's little and teeny and if I ever need to haul stuff, I'm SOL.
--It costs at least $5000 more than the hypothetical used Civic I could/should buy instead.
--There are a *lot* of other interesting, useful, or more significant things I could do with that $5000.
--A car is not an investment, it is a money hole. It will only depreciate in value.
--Buying a *new* car is particularly stupid, on account of the depreciation factor.
Apart from the irrationality, what's especially disturbing to me about this infatuation is that it forces me to revise one element of my Definition of Self, namely I am not someone who cares about cars. My philosophy has always been that a car is a by-god utility, a machine for getting you from one place to another, and the only thing that matters is that it do so dependably, efficiently and cheaply. Spending a penny on anything beyond those minimum criteria is not something I do.
Except. Ahem. I really, really want a Mini.
So I went and test-drove one yesterday; I've gotten preapproved financing (at 3.85%, not bad); I've discovered I could insure it at Geico for about the same as I'm paying State Farm to insure my clunky Plymouth (clearly State Farm's been grossly overcharging me for years now, dammit). I'm going to do another test-drive on Monday, and at that point I should make up my flippin' mind one way or ther other. Even if I closed the deal today, it would take two months for it to be delivered (that's how back-ordered they are), so I'd have plenty of time to wallow in Buyer's Remorse.
Anyway -- for the first time, I'm actually posting a dopey poll soliciting advice. (Let's see if this works...)
[Poll #266271]
(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-21 12:14 pm (UTC)Environmentally speaking, small cars are defly better, especially if you're buying new - less of the toxic materials needed to make them (tho creating a new car always has a pretty high environmental impact these days). I did briefly think about a Mini, cuz they are very cute, but I really wanted a hybrid (and I'll happily sing the praises of hybrids if you're interested, tho I won't be able to speak to the snow-driving issue).
That said, the Consumer Reports rating for reliability is very troubling. That doesn't sound like a car you'll still be driving at 60. I'm all for "you're worth spending $5000 for something that will make you happy," but a car which needs lots of repairs over time will seriously take away from that happiness.