{"id":142,"date":"2003-06-09T14:52:51","date_gmt":"2003-06-09T19:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=142"},"modified":"2003-06-09T14:52:51","modified_gmt":"2003-06-09T19:52:51","slug":"car_talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/06\/09\/car_talk.html","title":{"rendered":"Car talk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve slowly but surely been paying off the Saturn (a &#8217;95 SC2), so that I&#8217;m in a new car come next winter (since the Saturn behaves on snow and ice with only slighly less control than a saucer sled).  Since I&#8217;ll probably be doing more nattering on the subject, I&#8217;ve created a <i>Cars <\/i>category here on my blog, to collect these priceless thoughts.  Try not to get too excited &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Here are the criteria we&#8217;re looking for.  (I think Margie and I have pretty much agreed on these.  On the one hand, it&#8217;s the car I&#8217;m going to be driving most of the time.  On the other hand, Margie will be driving it sometimes, and definitely has a stake in what we get.  We&#8217;ve discussed it on and off, but have never come up with the definitive list.  Here&#8217;s a start.)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A comfortable and economical commute car.  I put 40-50 miles on it per day, so good gas mileage and maintenance records are important.\n<li>Capable of holding four adults for short (local) distances.  Capable of holding two adults and 1-2 kids for longer distances.\n<li>Good all-weather handling, ABS, all-wheel drive <i>or <\/i>some sort of traction control.\n<li>Sporty and zippy, handling and performance-wise.\n<li>Not much (if any) longer or wider than my current Saturn SC2.  The margin for error (and access to the fridges) in the garage are pretty slender.\n<li>Something about the price we paid for the van, i.e., not increasing our monthly payments.  Since that&#8217;s currently for the van, that provides a little leeway for something nicer in a car.  Say, under $30k.<\/ul>\n<p>On the list of nice-tos &#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It would be convenient if there were a dealership close to home, or to either of our offices.  It would make service calls a lot more convenient.\n<li>Disc-changer.  Hell, a CD player would be nice, but is assumed.  \n<li>Sun\/moon roof.  If I can&#8217;t have a convertable (which would be silly in this clime) &#8230;\n<li>Decent cargo capacity.  (I am not averse to a hatch-back.)\n<li><i>Not <\/i>a Boring, Dull, Gosh-I&#8217;m-Getting-Old Sedan. (That&#8217;s one of <i>my <\/i>criteria.)<\/ul>\n<p>My &#8220;catching my eye&#8221; list of cars is varied.  I like the VW Passat.  I like most of the Audi line (which are, by and large, outside the price range, not unlike Volvos, another eye-catcher).  I like the MINI Cooper.  There are some Subaru models I like.  Like I said, all over the board.<\/p>\n<p>Another consideration will be the purchase vector.  When we bought the van, we went through the Costco fleet sales process, which was inexpensive and painless.  I <i>despise <\/i>bartering down prices, absolutely despise it.  So what&#8217;s available that way may have an influence.<\/p>\n<p>The subject&#8217;s been brought up about used vehicles.  By and large, I&#8217;m inclined to shy away from a car whose previous treatment I&#8217;m not aware of, even if it comes with all the service guarantees.  Further, while I&#8217;m not likely to be buying something with all the top-end bells &#8216;n&#8217; whistles, I&#8217;d rather have something that has the latest tech I&#8217;m willing to buy.<\/p>\n<p>Last consideration is transmission.  I like manual.  I really do.  I like the control.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, hands-free shifting has much to recommend it.  And from what I read, manual transmission is on the way out, except for sports cars &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>So. Here we go &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve slowly but surely been paying off the Saturn (a &#8217;95 SC2), so that I&#8217;m in a new car come next winter (since the Saturn behaves on snow and ice&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10030,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/09\/20\/end_of_the_road.html","url_meta":{"origin":142,"position":0},"title":"End of the road","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 20-Sep-06 1:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So we have a plan on cars, you see? Average car, I think, will last you six, seven, eight years before you start having to worry about serious problems, or,...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10111,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/09\/02\/friday_in_revie.html","url_meta":{"origin":142,"position":1},"title":"Friday in Review","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 2-Sep-06 10:02am","format":false,"excerpt":"Woke up around 7ish to the phone briefly ringing. Margie got up, and we're in that too-warm-for-sheets too-cool-for-no-sheets time of year, so I was wakeful. Turned out Doyce's Saturn...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/beer1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4315,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/09\/26\/racing_to_the_e.html","url_meta":{"origin":142,"position":2},"title":"Racing to the end of an era","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 26-Sep-03 8:37am","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't deal with change well. It's not that it frightens me (per se), but it startles me. Even when it's good change, if it happens faster than I'm expecting,...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5110,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/10\/31\/busy_buzz_buzz.html","url_meta":{"origin":142,"position":3},"title":"Busy buzz-buzz","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 31-Oct-03 7:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"I set my cell phone to vibrate last night during the movie. (Side note -- the first time the lawyer's cell phone rings loudly off-screen, someone in the theater shouted...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1521,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/17\/a_tight_fit.html","url_meta":{"origin":142,"position":4},"title":"A tight fit","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 17-Dec-01 9:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So last Thursday night, there I am at DIA waiting to pick up the CIO of my company, who is finally visiting Denver after being with the company for a...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4303,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/09\/28\/color_blind.html","url_meta":{"origin":142,"position":5},"title":"Color blind","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 28-Sep-03 8:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not quite sure how the subject came up, but it was one of those jaw-dropping, staring-in-disbelief moments. \"What?\" \"Your car, man,\" said Doyce. \"It's turquoise, right?\" The Saturn? Turquoise?...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}