So I’ve mentioned before that we put a reservation fee down on a SMART. The idea being that it would almost pay for itself (roughly half the payment) in gas savings. I’ve chatted with a few people up here that have now had theirs a couple of months. The novelty wore off rather quickly and they discovered that they really don’t care for the flappy paddle shifter in that car. They also took it to FBX. It was apparently not a fun drive through the windy winding road. Enough that they put it and them on the train to get back. They also mentioned that they bought the bottom end and when all was said and done it was still about $20,000.
So much for it being a cheap car.
I also spent a Saturday waiting for the van to return so I could go get something from the store that wouldn’t fit into the Buick. Well it would’ve if the back seats would fold down. I can get 7 bloated corpses in the trunk but not a single 2*4.
Another factor has been my recent infatuation with Top Gear Aside from being really amusing, it has made me realize how much I do enjoy driving. How much I miss a standard transmission. More importantly, how much body roll the Buick has in the curves. (a lot!)
We’ve also recalculated the gas mileage savings from more efficient cars. They’re all better than the Buick at this point. An newer F150 is the same at this point. So a small cheap fun to drive hatch (or at least folding seats) is the way I’m going. What I’ve been interested in has not come up often used, and when they do they are still more money than I want to pay because (I’m cheap) they’ve ‘upgraded’ the hell out of them, or they’re at a used car dealer with high mileage and way too high a price. I suppose that’s a good thing in that it means people are keeping the cars.
So what I’ve been looking at thus far are 05-07 or 09 Subaru WRX and WRX STi, Mitsubishi Lancer EVO, Chevy HHR SS (bad part is it gets insured as an $uv), an 09 Mazda Mazdaspeed3 5 door, 09 focus xr5 turbo (if they release it in the US) and a few others. I obviously want to drive again. :-)
