LGK
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2007
- Messages
- 2,975
Well, I have had a craptastic week so far. Last night, I was driving on a rural two-lane highway at night in the rain, when my car stalled out. I thought I was out of gas (though it seemed a bit early, and its been years & years since I miscalculated that). Tried to call my DH, no answer. Walked the mile and a half to the gas station. It was AM/PM, which has the most irritating pumps in the universe, and I flailed around filling up the gas can and spilling gas all over myself. Walked back to car. Spent about a half hour studying the horrible and mystifying directions on the gas can "1. Properly attach spout to can." Thanks. Will do that anytime now. Oh wait- you have to break the middle of lid it came with out, and it says NOTHING ABOUT THAT. Gah. Still doesn''t work properly. Flailed around with that for quite a while longer in the dark and the rain, spilling gas merrily. Fun fun. Still no answer on DH''s cell. Finally get most of gas in car, with a liberal puddle in my shoes. Start car. Go 100 feet and die SMACK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD THIS TIME. Crank engine a lot more for the next 15 minutes or so, fail to do anything more than produce an unhappy battery. OK, I admit I might have snivelled a little at this point
. Realize I have no AAA coverage as of a few months ago, since we''ve both had "reliable" cars, and that I''m going to have to pray they let you reinstate it and get towed immediately. Also realize I''m going to have to stand in the rain waiting for tow truck, since the car is in the middle of the road. Awesome.
Luckily, AAA did let me call, get the new account set up and paid for, and get towed immediately. I only had to wait about a half hour thank god. The towtruck driver was totally cool and drove me home after delivering the car a few miles away, which was sooo nice since I was carrying my laptop and it would have gotten soaked. (Really really grateful for that!)
DH''s cellphone happened to break at the exact minute my car did, somehow. Luckily that only took $65 and an hour at the Verizon store to fix, unlike the car. (He felt reeaaalllly bad when his drowned rat of a wife, c''est moi, showed up at 9:30 last night and his phone had been next to him the whole night... but silent.)
Anyway, my ''02 ZX5 Focus is toast. It apparently got wet under the hood at some point, which rusted many important things, including the spark plugs. Timing belt also went. And a number of other issues, with the estimate being $1200 to fix the obvious things, which may or may not be everything that it needs to make it drive again. It was a cheapo with salvage title, and the last year has had a porta-swamp in the passenger side that was not fixable, so we''ve decided to get a new car.
I am feeling rather lost as to what I want. (There''s nothing I''ve really been thinking ''ooh that would be cool'' about; I get very attached to my craptastic cars and hate getting rid of them!) I think our budget is somewhere in the $10-$20K zone, I''d prefer probably $12-13K, and used for sure.
I don''t want an SUV or a crossover thingy. I tend to prefer sporty-ish cars or hatchbacks, and DH definitely would prefer sporty, since he drives my cars quite a bit too. I wish the Mazda Speed 3 was not so new; that''d be fun... a regular 3 hatchback might be OK, but realllllly a lot like the Focus was. The Nissan 350Z is also way too much like the RX8 the DH drives. DH has suggested a BMW M3, which would probably be in the $18K range to get a 2001-2003 with 50K miles. Could be car overkill!
(Another option would be to swap me the RX8, and he could get the new car, but I suspect there''s nothing out there that would make him nearly as happy for $20K or less!)
I hate car shopping! Oh, and I just- like about two weeks ago- got $800 new tires for the wretched car... less than 200 miles on them.
Wait, wait: I have one more gripe. (No, not quite done, sorry!) For now, I''m going to have to learn to drive a stick for real this time (sigh, I know, I''m such a girl) and drive the moldy 2001 Honda we kept for no good reason. Awesome. No radio, the entire dash was ripped apart last time it was broken into, the radio was swiped, and the electrical was shorted out when they tried to steal it, so no dome light either. At least it doesn''t have a porta-swap, just a light coating of mold over the interior. For now everyone will have to laugh at my sorry self rolling backwards down every hill, and burning rubber trying to get up it. Maiden voyage will be tomorrow, to the DMV to renew my license, which I spaced out on and is expired as of the 6th. (I am really embarrassed to admit how nervous I am about driving that thing... I *so* suck at driving a stick.)
OK I feel slightly less sorry for myself now
Good luck wading through all that!
Luckily, AAA did let me call, get the new account set up and paid for, and get towed immediately. I only had to wait about a half hour thank god. The towtruck driver was totally cool and drove me home after delivering the car a few miles away, which was sooo nice since I was carrying my laptop and it would have gotten soaked. (Really really grateful for that!)
DH''s cellphone happened to break at the exact minute my car did, somehow. Luckily that only took $65 and an hour at the Verizon store to fix, unlike the car. (He felt reeaaalllly bad when his drowned rat of a wife, c''est moi, showed up at 9:30 last night and his phone had been next to him the whole night... but silent.)
Anyway, my ''02 ZX5 Focus is toast. It apparently got wet under the hood at some point, which rusted many important things, including the spark plugs. Timing belt also went. And a number of other issues, with the estimate being $1200 to fix the obvious things, which may or may not be everything that it needs to make it drive again. It was a cheapo with salvage title, and the last year has had a porta-swamp in the passenger side that was not fixable, so we''ve decided to get a new car.
I am feeling rather lost as to what I want. (There''s nothing I''ve really been thinking ''ooh that would be cool'' about; I get very attached to my craptastic cars and hate getting rid of them!) I think our budget is somewhere in the $10-$20K zone, I''d prefer probably $12-13K, and used for sure.
I don''t want an SUV or a crossover thingy. I tend to prefer sporty-ish cars or hatchbacks, and DH definitely would prefer sporty, since he drives my cars quite a bit too. I wish the Mazda Speed 3 was not so new; that''d be fun... a regular 3 hatchback might be OK, but realllllly a lot like the Focus was. The Nissan 350Z is also way too much like the RX8 the DH drives. DH has suggested a BMW M3, which would probably be in the $18K range to get a 2001-2003 with 50K miles. Could be car overkill!
(Another option would be to swap me the RX8, and he could get the new car, but I suspect there''s nothing out there that would make him nearly as happy for $20K or less!)
I hate car shopping! Oh, and I just- like about two weeks ago- got $800 new tires for the wretched car... less than 200 miles on them.
Wait, wait: I have one more gripe. (No, not quite done, sorry!) For now, I''m going to have to learn to drive a stick for real this time (sigh, I know, I''m such a girl) and drive the moldy 2001 Honda we kept for no good reason. Awesome. No radio, the entire dash was ripped apart last time it was broken into, the radio was swiped, and the electrical was shorted out when they tried to steal it, so no dome light either. At least it doesn''t have a porta-swap, just a light coating of mold over the interior. For now everyone will have to laugh at my sorry self rolling backwards down every hill, and burning rubber trying to get up it. Maiden voyage will be tomorrow, to the DMV to renew my license, which I spaced out on and is expired as of the 6th. (I am really embarrassed to admit how nervous I am about driving that thing... I *so* suck at driving a stick.)
OK I feel slightly less sorry for myself now
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