Car Shopping

"If your car is going to have an accident, the best situation is if it happens when you are not in it!" And that is just what happened to me yesterday. I have been doing some work on my house recently, and came home on my lunch break to see if the floor guy (who is patching in a new oak board to replace one that rotted out due to water damage from a leaking bathroom wall) had been there in the morning, so I could release the beagles from where I keep them confined when workmen are there. Since the front door was unlocked, I parked curbside in front of the house.

The contractor had not yet been there. I was warming some food in the microwave when I heard a very loud impact noise from the street. A full-size pickup truck had come over the curving hill above the house and slammed into the rear corner of my car, doing considerable damage to both vehicles. The sad part was that I knew the guy: He is my maintenance gardener. After we exchanged insurance identification, I replaced the cut-up left rear tire with the doughnut spare wheel and took the car to the body shop most favored by all the insurance companies. The impromptu comments led me to conclude that I am going to need a new car.

So this morning I went to look at the three most likely replacements for my 11 year old Mustang convertible:
- a Smart FourTwo Passion Cabriolet (the smallest convertible I know of)
- a Prius (I have wanted an excuse to test drive one for the last 5 years)
- a Volvo C70

Very different wheels, for sure, but each resonates with different desires.

I decided that the Smart is an overpriced Golf Cart. While it is totally adequate for my daily commute 8 miles each way, I would probably not want to drive it to Los Angeles (2 1/2 hours) or San Francisco (5 hours), but would need a rental for that. The salesman pointed out that the Hyundai Elantra gets the same miles per gallon as the Smart. (By some coincidence, the two marques are in the same dealership.) He did not actually have any Elantras in stock, but wanted me to come back when he gets some in 9 days.

I liked the Prius exactly as much as I thought I would. The salesman thought he could get one with exactly the features I wanted (white, trim level 4, and with a moonroof) but warned me that supply may soon become very tight due to the recent events in Japan.

And I loved the Volvo. To my surprise, they had 3 in stock (one each red, black, white), although the only color I liked was the white, which happened to be less expensive, being a left-over 2010 model. It drinks 50% more gas, and costs 25% more than the Prius, but it is very lovely. Having driven a convertible for a few years, I can appreciate how much nicer this one is: Better seats, folding hardtop instead of nylon hide (less noise), etc etc. The Mustang is cheap, the Volvo is nice. If I was ordering one from the catalog, I would take the stick instead of the automatic, and I would take the wood panel inlays. But a catalog order has to come all the way from Sweden, so I'd have to wait 6 weeks ... and probably have to pay the sticker price.

It is lovely to have a week to mull over this decision, and reflect on what "statement" each makes. I mentioned to one female friend that I had looked at a Volvo convertible, and she instantly wanted to know how many miles it gets per gallon, and how I could possibly find anything below 30 mpg to be acceptable. It is a fact that the parking lot at my church is about 30% Prius already.