Car Chronicles: Part Three: Never Say Never

Well, we have done something we have said that we would never do. What is that saying again? Never say never? (Along those lines, I would NEVER go hang out in Europe all summer or win the lottery. Does it work that way if you say it, but really, actually want it?)

Anyway, curious what the ‘never’ is? Well <gulp> it is actually two things. We said we would NEVER buy a NEW car and we would NEVER finance a car.

At least the whole never buy a mini-van thing hasn’t happened. Whew! That could have been a close one.

So, yes. I turned my back on my husband in the Toyota dealership for five minutes. Apparently, that is long enough for him to stumble across a new car (discounted because of tiny hail damage dings) and fall in love with it. Enough to not only buy it, but to finance it.

We were looking at used cars, but out here used cars are crazy prices! So, as we discovered, we could put another five grand into a car, give ourselves a bit of financial breathing room (by using the dealerships financing which is better than our line of credit, which we would have had to use for a used car) and have a car that should be problem free for years. Craziness.

So are you curious what we bought? Are you? Are you?

I am so pumped!

We bought a tiny little sedan called the Toyota Yaris.

Essentially it is the Echo with a new name and a new body and a trunk. And a carseat fits in the back quite nicely, which is a nice change for us. And it is cheap and gets 41-51 mpg (Canadian). Sweet! The only problem with any car is that my hubby is going to have it used up in no time flat. (He will be commuting 100km per day next year to get to and fro his new job. But at least he won’t be nearly as worried about getting there. He has always been really paranoid about that–to the point where I used to have to drive the 18-year-old gas car the 120km for my daily commute (and have the nonplug in parking spot) whereas he took the diesel car (with I might add–not only had working doors but also had more than AM radio (it had a CD player)) for his 60km commute. No, I’m not bitter. Not at all…. I mean, it doesn’t matter that my cars mostly got me to work and if his car didn’t start at minus thirty, he’d take mine and I’d have to call AMA and be late for work.

Anyway, this car is so cute and so sweet and so amazingly nondescript (it is silver) that I will NEVER be able to find it in a parking lot. (There is that ‘never’ word again.) It’s a good thing it is already dinged, otherwise my hubby would moan over every new scratch and ding…oh yeah, he’ll do that anyway.

I can hardly wait to drive it everywhere! Except for the miniscule clutch that is so springy and well, new, that I stall it all over the place. On the test drive, whenever I started out anywhere, all my hubby heard was, “Did I stall it? Is it still running? I can’t hear anything.” So, finally, tired of stalling it with its tiny little clutch and tiny little sweet spot, I floored it and released the clutch. Wow!

Hello? Dealership? Yes, could we get a new car? This one doesn’t seem to have any rubber left on the tires. Yes, well, there are some nice little strips on the pavement over in Springbank. Um, yeah, I don’t know how that happened. Really? Well, I don’t think I want to buy a car that has been treated that way. I mean, afterall, I am a lady driver.

I think I heard something from the salesman that sounded an awful lot like, “Drive it like you own it, not like you stole it.” But that was when he was telling us how we should break it in, not um, how to test drive it.

So, in a few days we should get our Golf back from the shop, all fixed up and happyish. (It needs a head gasket, I think.) So, if you know of anyone who wants a good little, economical car and doesn’t mind putting a head gasket in, we’ve got their car!

And then we’ll get the Yaris. Such a cool name. Now we have to think of a name for the little guy. Maybe we should call it ‘Doug’.