I’m a Grown-Up!

You will NOT believe what I did last night.

Well, yes, actually, you will – since yesterday I talked about the Car Blues.

So here’s the STUPID stuff I did this past month:

A) re-registered the Plymouth Breeze at a cost of $36.00
B) dropped over $400 into fixing the Plymouth Breeze – EGR valve and sensor and Idle motor
C) Filled the gas tank on the Breeze yesterday to the tune of $30.30.

Here’s the smart thing I did yesterday – unless, of course, you add up A through C above and then you may consider this the MOST stupid.

I bought a “new” car. New to me – 2 years old, 10,000 miles. So far, it’s wonderful, but I’ve only actually driven it from the dealership home and from home to work. It’s a mid-sized SUV and it’s a little bigger than the Breeze. Taller, by FAR. Not quite sure how long or wide it is yet, hence the park job at the office this morning – about 3 feet too far from the building! But – to my credit – I am in the middle of the lines of the parking space! Gotta give me points for that!

I will indeed miss driving stick shift. I’ve had 2 cars in my life that were stick. One I drove for 10 years and one I drove for 6. So out of 25 years of driving, the majority was done stick shift. But hey, the radio works and there’s a moon roof!

My girl child went with me for the ultimate car-buying experience. She’s 13, and it’s all about the image, you know? This time, it was all about how comfortable the car was. She is afraid of the front seat, so she rode in the back seat and let me know how comfortable (or not) each car was and what neat gadgets there were, and whether or not there was an available data port (for recharging the omnipresent iPod) in the back. Then it was text messages to her brother to ask HIS opinion of each vehicle. He was at the movies with friends…how thrilled do you think he was to get texts during the film from his sister?

Once we decided on a vehicle, she kept saying “MOM – you’re buying a car!” And I kept saying “Girly – we’re buying a CAR!” Of course, she’s excited beyond belief and I’m sitting there calculating whether or not I can REALLY afford this. And what’s my insurance going up to? And OMG, I have to call and get money transferred for the down-payment.

So all that’s done, my finances are not in *too* much of a shambles, and I did it without ANYONE’s help – of the adult persuasion, anyhow! And I have a smart new ride to show for my trouble!

The End of an Era

OK, so my car’s been giving me trouble. LOTS of trouble. I mean, I’ve had it for a number of years, it’s paid off, and suddenly, one thing after another is wrong. So there I was in Firestone this morning, waiting to see what the latest problem is and how much it’s going to cost.

The bottom line is that *right now* there’s nothing wrong, so they re-set the “check engine” light and sent me on my merry way, 45 minutes late for work. The next line up (from the bottom line) is that there’s “the beginning” of an exhaust leak at the front of the system where it meets the engine, and this could be causing a vacuum leak and hence the rough idle when the engine’s cold, so “we’ll keep an eye” on that.

The very next line is…

“That’s a lotta miles for that car, and you might want to think about…”

GASP!

“…another vehicle.”

He’s the second person in 3 days to say that to me. The first was my dad when I told him I’d had the car in the shop 3 times in the past month. You know dads, though – took that one with a grain of salt, I did.

But that said, I’ve been perusing used car websites as well as the Saturn and Kia new car sites. I want a VUE or a Sportage or something else along those lines. Girl-child wants to go shopping with me because she says the car “has to be comfortable.” Oy. I’ll let you all know how it goes.