I spent Saturday buying a car!
I was hoping I still had my blog post here about buying the bug back in 2003, but apparently it was on my regular blogger site, which I don’t think I ported over to this (I still have them all… somewhere). The MX3 had died and I bought a brand new Beetle — apparently the WEEK before Dragoncon according to the dates on my title LOL — and I was SO excited.
The Beetle lasted me for 12 years. But in recent months… that thing was running only on prayers. Let’s see. Both headlights were out and I didn’t want to get them changed (You can’t do it yourself. $80 a pop.) so I just didn’t drive at night. The AC was out for the second year in a row. Missing a hubcap. Spare was ripped. The fabric covering on the ceiling had come loose and hung down, which let little tiny bits of foam fall all over me (and they’d get caught by the wind and I’d think they were a bug). The whole car was just dirty inside. The gas tank door release has been broken for years. The tape player didn’t work. No clue if the CD player still worked, haven’t used it in forever. There was mold in the trunk. As I posted a few weeks ago, the hard plastic guard for the undercarriage broke off and we had to cut it off to keep it from dragging the ground.
As many times as I’ve had to change the alternator, I knew it was only a matter of time before that went again, too. I’ve ONLY used it for work for the past couple of years.
But even so… it was hard to say goodbye. I found myself walking out of the dealership and seeing it sitting there, and realizing it wasn’t mine anymore and getting a little choked up!
Goodbye my friend!!!!!!
So what did I get? Well, I was looking at Honda Fit (which there wasn’t a lot to choose from used) and a Toyota Yaris (of which there were 3 we were going to look at). We poked our nose into the Honda dealer’s used lot and there was the Fit we’d seen online. Took it for a test drive, and it felt just like driving the Beetle. It felt like the same size, the driver’s seat set up felt the same, the pedals reacted very similar. So I was sold.
It’s a sporty looking little thing! I think it’s super cute!
The best part is it has working AC! LOL
Also a hook-up for my phone, and a REAL cd player! No seat-warmers like the Bug had, but that’s ok. The backseats fold down flat, so lots of space for road trips!
All my friends immediately asked what its name is – I think we may have decided on “Gaston”, which Derek suggested – because it’s fit!
As for the rest of the weekend, since this post got a little long, I’ll leave the costume stuff for a separate post….