New Car!!

[dreamshark]

This was both a well-researched, carefully planned decision and an impulse purchase. I started thinking about a new car last spring when my Mazda "Goldberry" turned 10. When I buy a new car I plan to keep it for at least 10 years (or at the very least, 100,000 miles). No matter how much I like the car when it's new, by the time year 10 rolls around I'm bored with it. I realized that with the perspective of time, I missed my previous new car (a sky-blue Geo Metro that I could hardly wait to unload on my darling daughter when it hit 100K) and started looking for another perky little 4-door hatchback. Every car company makes one of these. Chevy even sells two of them (Spark and Sonic). But after a trek to the car show where I clambered in and out of dozens of little cars, peered into the back, folded the seats up and down, etc., I realized that it would be silly to buy a knock-off of the Honda Fit when I could just buy a Fit for pretty much the same price.

All the cars I looked at were shiny and cute, but it was clear that the Fit had been engineered to a fare-thee-well by a team of Japanese hotshots determined to close the book on the entire concept once and for all. Somehow this tiny car manages to have as much cargo space as my much larger Mazda (and more than any of the other sub-compact hatchbacks). Not only do the back seats fold down into a flat surface, you don't have to rip the damn headrests off the seats to do it - they sink down into the seat back. And only the Fit has a secret drug stash under one of the seat cushions. The mpg is not quite the best in class (probably because of the ridiculous number of airbags tucked away into the frame), but the rated average is still over 30. And for the first time ever, I bought an automatic, because the automatic is so well-engineered that it gets BETTER mileage than the manual!

Anyway, I decided I wanted a Fit, but dropped the idea when I learned my job was disappearing. Now that my financial plans have stabilized, I decided I might as well go for it. The end of the model year is the best time to buy a new car anyway, and the salespeople are hungry by the end of the month. So I stopped at Hopkins Honda on Tuesday for a test drive, hoping I would still love the Fit after I drove it. Fortunately, I did. I also liked the saleslady, and she was willing to go out of her way to find me the rare color that I wanted - Blue Raspberry - which had to be retrieved from a lot out in White Bear. Based on my earlier research, the price seemed perfectly reasonable. So, sure, why not!  We closed the deal yesterday - Halloween. I think I'll call her Luna.

Comments

[seekerval.livejournal.com]

Yay, you! Snazzy looking little set of wheels you got yourself.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Very nice! We kept our Kia for about 10 years, and just recently traded it in toward a Subaru Forester, which we like very much.

[carbonel]

Pretty! I will seriously consider something like that when my Honda Accord dies. (I bought it with 177K miles, but I'm a low-mileage driver.)

I've never had a new car yet. The previous car was supposed to be, but I paid off my house instead. And I do like the current car, a Honda Accord. The mileage is mediocre -- 20 mpg city, 25 to 30 highway. If I drove more, that might be a factor.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous color! Congrats!

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Ooo! Lovely color!

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

It looks like your Fit is another Cardis. It's 10 inches shorter in length than the current Toyota Matrix, 1 inch shorter in height, and 2 inches narrower, yet it has 4 more cu. ft. cargo space than the Matrix with the back seats up, and 10 more with the back seats down. The passenger volume (which is with the back seats up) is 3.5 cu. ft. less than the Matrix, but that's a simple trade-off and still doesn't explain how a car that much smaller has as much or more space inside.

Good choice!

[mle292.livejournal.com]

A very nice tealish color from what I can discern from the photograph. Glad to hear that it went so smoothly!

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Snappy! Congrats!

I am struggling with the replacement-of-car situation myself. My loveable and useful 2001 Subaru Outback has 150,000(ish) miles on it, and I think at 13 years it's time to consider options. Unfortunately, there is NOTHING to replace it with. Perhaps I will write about this more extensively.

K.