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2010 Debbie Cars
Aug. 23rd, 2010 08:30 pmI haven't actually looked at many cars yet because almost all of the cars for sale have automatic transmissions. You would think there would be some people in Texas macho enough to drive a standard, but apparently they are all driving pickup trucks. And sports cars.
The few cars I do find, we keep going to these so-called dealers and finding: a) a repair shop lying about an obviously pre-wrecked car, b) another repair shop with an obviously wrecked car, and c) a unit in a fourplex whose resident never heard of Century Motorcars. Choice c) was the last straw. I declared, "That does it. I'm buying a new car."
It was fun to say.
Today I compiled a list of cars with "good" gas mileage and decent reliability and then collected their specifications. They are all the same boring car. They have the same headroom, the same legroom, the same steering, the same struts, the same front wheel drive, the same turning radius, the same greenhouse gas score, the same mediocre mileage, and they all come in the same colorless hues.
Some come in red and or blue, too, but some of those reds and blues are also ugly. One has more expensive tires than the others.
They do vary in cruising range from 350 highway miles before you run out of gas for the Honda Fit to 490 for the Hyundai Elantra.
They do vary in price, too (probably--hard to tell until you see what needs to be added to the base model), with base prices ranging from $13,000 for the Toyota Yaris to $17,000 for the Ford Focus. One car doesn't come with anti-lock brakes (the Hyundai Accent).
Not a single car comes in hunter green (or any good green unless the Corolla's green looks good). Or dark purple (or any purple). Or yellow. Or blue-green. Not a single car gets 40 MPG even on the highway. None of them have a real tire for the spare tire.
I did have two interesting cars on my list for a while. But I decided that the Mini Cooper is just too expensive and low to the ground. A there is just no evidence that the Smart is reliable even though it is made by Mercedes, probably because of its shifty transmission.
The few cars I do find, we keep going to these so-called dealers and finding: a) a repair shop lying about an obviously pre-wrecked car, b) another repair shop with an obviously wrecked car, and c) a unit in a fourplex whose resident never heard of Century Motorcars. Choice c) was the last straw. I declared, "That does it. I'm buying a new car."
It was fun to say.
Today I compiled a list of cars with "good" gas mileage and decent reliability and then collected their specifications. They are all the same boring car. They have the same headroom, the same legroom, the same steering, the same struts, the same front wheel drive, the same turning radius, the same greenhouse gas score, the same mediocre mileage, and they all come in the same colorless hues.
Some come in red and or blue, too, but some of those reds and blues are also ugly. One has more expensive tires than the others.
They do vary in cruising range from 350 highway miles before you run out of gas for the Honda Fit to 490 for the Hyundai Elantra.
They do vary in price, too (probably--hard to tell until you see what needs to be added to the base model), with base prices ranging from $13,000 for the Toyota Yaris to $17,000 for the Ford Focus. One car doesn't come with anti-lock brakes (the Hyundai Accent).
Not a single car comes in hunter green (or any good green unless the Corolla's green looks good). Or dark purple (or any purple). Or yellow. Or blue-green. Not a single car gets 40 MPG even on the highway. None of them have a real tire for the spare tire.
I did have two interesting cars on my list for a while. But I decided that the Mini Cooper is just too expensive and low to the ground. A there is just no evidence that the Smart is reliable even though it is made by Mercedes, probably because of its shifty transmission.