So last Tuesday I went to look at that car, which turned out to fit the bill; it was a little more downscale than I wanted but also five years younger than I expected, so I think it was a good trade-off. I put a down payment on it that day, then paid the rest and took it home yesterday. It’s in excellent shape, low mileage for its age and has the features I want; it’s also supposed to get 35 MPG, but that remains to be seen when I take it for its first long road trip. I got it for about 2/3 of the book value, but that still meant draining my business account and throwing in about $200 of my own money; if you’d like to help replace that and pay for the taxes and insurance (or just want to start building up my war chest again), please PayPal any amount you like to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net, and thank you!
On the blogging front, I seem to have pulled out of my slump and I’m catching up again; by the time I go to bed tonight I should have the advance work for next week done, and by Friday night I should have Christmas week all sewn up. With any luck, I should have the first week of January prepped before Jae gets here for the holidays on the 23rd, and that’s good because I think it’s awfully rude to work too much when one has a guest. Oh, and speaking of guests: I’m going to be Rachel Mills‘ first one on her new podcast! We’re recording tonight, and I’ll let you know next week where you can hear it.
Enjoy the car! I think the falling gas prices will also help you out along with the gas mileage.
You know … looking at this picture, and remembering when I met you … you have perfected the art of “feminine” dress. I see A LOT of girls every week and they dress with stuff hanging out – which I don’t mind, but I don’t find it as much of a “turn on” as the kind of feminine, not-overly-revealing kind of dress that you and a few other women have mastered. I mean, the stuff you wear, really doesn’t even “cling” to you … except in certain strategic places!
Thank you! Many people have compared my style to that of Stevie Nicks, and one of my dear friends calls me a “white-winged dove” in reference to that.
I do occasionally wear clingy dresses, though; I have my eye on this stunner, though I’m really upset that the company appears to be out of business:
Dang! That’s certainly a nice photo to see first thing in the morning, or for that matter any time of day!
Thank you! Grace didn’t seem to think it was important to get it taken before sunset, but I insisted that my readers deserved a nice picture in gratitude for their helping me to buy the car in the first place!
Enjoy! I trust that it will prove reliable and economical in use. 35mpg of your puny US gallons is about 42mpg using real gallons!
And yes, I like the slinky dress in your comment!
If I wore that dress to an event, I’d turn men to stone. Almost literally.
Maggie, you can turn me to stone–please!
😉
I know nothing about mechanics, Maggie. I hope you tested the tires by throwing a few kicks at them. You sure beat any pin-up at any car show! We get the impression that the car is smiling. I guess it’s a match! I hope it will lead to more road chronicles. They are so nice to read.
Grace is an excellent mechanic, and inspected the car at the same time I test-drove it. She also researched the model online and discovered they have very good reputations, and I just came back from leaving it with my professional mechanic for a stem-to-stern inspection before I take it out on the highway.
Thanks for the sweet words, too! 🙂
Ive always hated car shopping. Just let my brother in law pick one our for me.
im a die hard bicyclist
A good choice for a used car. Neither hideously ugly or falling apart at the seams. By the way, I have something to show you regarding Playboy magazine, but will wait.
You have not cut your hair. Everything else is irrelevant noise.
Go Maggie!!! You have Friends in a lot of places.
That hair has not been cut appreciably since the autumn of 1995, and not cut at all since 1997.
Start building a rainy day fund when your car breaks down. I had a 3 year old hyundai that cost me $1000/year in repair bills before selling it 3 years later.
The beauty of this is that I’m not going to get emotionally attached to the thing; it’s just a tool bought for a purpose. As soon as it gets to be a pain, Grace will find me another like it and I’ll sell this one. And since it will only be used for business travel, it’s all deductible.
Hyundai might be a good choice (I can’t tell how old this one is). They’ve been doing VERY well in comparison tests in Car & Driver magazine in the last 10 years or so. I recall one such test in which the Hyundai came in first, and was $4,000 cheaper than the next cheapest car. Hyundai has the most advanced auto plant in the world (in Alabama), which is a miracle of modern automation that helps them build world class cars at low prices (one example: rolled sheet steel is placed in a “dispenser”, and robots unroll it, cut it, shape it, assemble it, and weld it into the unibody, all without human hands touching it – raw steel is placed at one end, and the car’s unibody frame comes out the other end, with 1/1,000 inch tolerance and near absolute consistency – far beyond what any human crew could do, even at Ferrari).
I’d be interested in knowing how a 3 year old car with a 10 year warrantee could cost anyone anything in “repairs”, as another poster claims, unless this was over 15 years ago before Hyundai went to the 10 year warrantee. But in any event, my smart car (both my wife and I own one) costs about half that annually in scheduled maintenance (the only repair my smart car has needed has been to deal with a leaky rear hatch window seal), so $1,000 isn’t that bad (I could scare the crap out of you with what my 8+ year old BMW 850i cost per year in maintenance and repair when I owned it). My 6 year old smart car typically cost between $400 – $500 for annual maintenance (I only drive about 5,000 miles per year, maintenance is scheduled for every 10,000 miles or annually, whichever occurs first). I’d expect that a newish Hyundai would cost about the same. Still cheaper than a typical year’s worth of car payments.
In the future, I recommend Car & Driver’s web site for vehicle research. One of the things they do is a 40,000 mile test drive. They straw purchase a car (i.e. secret purchase by third party so dealership/manufacturer doesn’t know C & D is the actual buyer so they can’t slip in a “ringer”), and drive it for 40,000 miles (used by nearly the entire staff at some point, typically), keeping track of all expenses – including gas, as well as staff feedback. They also do instrumented solo and comparison tests. You can learn a lot about a car you’re thinking of buying with their web site.
Anyway, good luck with your new car.