Yet another reason to buy a new car
Steven was stuck with privileged with driving my car (aka, the “Kimbotmobile,” an ’88 Oldsmobile) the past two days. The Infiniti was in the shop because a pothole destroyed a tire and wheel.
This comic reminds me of a few of his comments:
“A lot more people cut me off when I’m driving your car!”
“Hey, your car is exactly 20 years older than mine!”
“Did you know your car breaks down if you go over 90 mph?”
Okay, he didn’t really say that last comment. It might break down though.
I would love to buy a new car. But I don’t need one. I drive my car 5 or 6 miles a day, 5 days a week. The most my car has been driven in a long time was this last weekend – and that is because the Infiniti had a donut on it, and we didn’t want to drive it all around time.
But still… I would love to buy a new car. Because people do treat you differently when you are driving a car that is so frickin’ old. I had noticed long before Steven brought it up.
Themocracy
Don’t fix what ‘aint broken. To have a car payment for such a short drive is going to hurt. I’m only saying this from personal experience 😉 I have ALL new cars – 3 of them (one for me, the huz, and for our 16 year old son) Eeesh. I long to have a clunker so I can park it in the department store lot and not worry about getting a ding or dent. OR, every time the huz cleans one of our cars, he finds a new scratch or something to become ranty about. It’s just a car. Gets ya from A-Z. I’d LOVE to not have to worry about it, to just have a “beater” as we call it in our house. 🙂
The ONLY reason we bought a new car was because my husband’s front wheels kept falling off, while he driving, with the children in the car, and the mechanic who didn’t charge us to fix it over and over after the first time said it couldn’t be fixed. It was NOT our plan, our plan was to pay off our last car this April and have no payments for at least 4 years. I can’t tell you how angry I am to be back to two payments, and then in april STILL have another 4+ years to go on a car we weren’t even supposed to have.
No one treats anyone differently out here unless they’re driving a Model-T (seriously, there are a lot of them here. I try to tell myself they’re just car enthusiasts, but I’m worried that the folks driving them might actually be from that era.) It works? Keep it! 😉
I have a hoopty too and would love a new car (I’ve never had one of those), but the way I look at is is that it gets me where I’m going and if someone pisses me off it won’t hurt my car if I hit them.
As E. can verify, I’ve been seriously jonesing for one of the new Honda Civic Hybrids. It’s the car I usually get when I use I-Go. I tried the Prius and felt very “meh” about it. And now I am in love with the Civic, especially after driving a horrible rental Corolla to Ohio and back.
But…realistically, there is NO reason for me to buy a car.
Unless I move to Evanston.
Okay, maybe not even then.
I think…
Doh. :p
i know exactly what you mean!!! as the “oddball” commenting on here so far, i bought a new (to me) car friday… an ’06 Passat (Payton)… am i already having buyers remorse since i never drive anywhere?? i think so… if david is in town we always take his truck… otherwise i drive to and from work… my only justification was that i had only made 11 payments on my “old” Passat (Phoenix) and it had been in the shop for about 4 months total… for a little over $100 more a month and with 66,000+ less miles than my old Passat i have a newer one… bad justification, probably, but in the end i think it will be for the best.
=^..^=
I never thought about that but I guess we do treat people differently based on their car. That’s rather depressing.
I wouldn’t mind a new car, but only if I didn’t have to pay for it 😉 I actually kind of dread the day we have to get a new car because we’re car payment free right now, and it’s great.
I promised myself I would be car payment free for a while. I paid off my 2001 Nissan Sentra in March and I would like to remain with that payment for a while. Since I ride my scooter most places, the car just sits. I would love a new car… who wouldn’t? But the practicality of it, even with winter coming up here, is just not something I can do.
Plus, I own my scooter, too. So having no vehicle payments is nice.
If you are only driving a few miles a day, there’s no need. The exception would be if you start having trouble and you break down a lot. Then it’s a green light for a new car, IMO.
I love the first two! you’ve got me giggling at my desk 🙂
My husband just bought a new car because his was falling apart. He drives a lot for work, so he needed it. I don’t really care about cars and could probably live forever with my same car and be just fine. Although once my kids are old enough that I don’t need a minivan, I would happily go back to something smaller…except I’d still need room for all 4 kids even if they didn’t need carseats anymore so it couldn’t be a tiny car. My kids are begging me to get a car with a tv in it. My daughter’s best friend has one with different screens on each seat so every passenger has their own tv and she is saying she needs that. Maybe I’d feel differently if we went on a lot of long driving trips, but I still don’t understand the need to have a tv in the car, let alone more than one. Why can’t kids just look out the window like I did when I was little? But that is a whole new rant and makes me feel very old when I begin it! As much as it would be nice to have a new car just because new things are fun, for me the payments wouldn’t be worth it.
I dunno. I’m always worried that OLD cars have faulty brake lights (no tailgating) or faulty brakes for that matter (no cutting off). Plus, no offense to you, but I tend to assume people driving really old (and in particular, beat up) cars don’t have insurance. And the last thing I want to do is get in a fender bender with them.
Though, good for you for making your car last that long. I stupidly got rid of my 10-year old Japanese car in favor of a new German car. The German car sucks ass. I’ll never buy another one again. And, in fact, after the wedding, we are looking to sell it and keep my fiance’s 11 year old Japanese for a while until we figure out what we want to do with our car situation.
my current car is the oonnnlllyyy car i’ve ever had, and i bought it used (although still with a car payment!). now it’s MINE ALL MINE, has a small scrape on the rear wheelwell, surpassed its warranty, has 110k miles… and hot damn, i plan to drive it until its very last sputter 🙂
There are advantages and disadvantages to both. I got my first new car in 2005 and it about broke my heart when it got it’s first scratch and ding. And I still sometimes miss my old cars – allright I only miss two of them, the rest were crap. LOL. But I had an almost brand new car once that lost its transmission right away and had to be repaired. You just never know what you’re going to get. And new car payments are kind of yuck. LOL.
Drive it into the ground first. No use spending all that cash if it works fine. Sucks that there’s stigma to driving it though.
Check with your auto insurance, you may be able to get a low mileage discount. Maybe that’ll take the sting out. 🙂
javaqueen14 – To me though, it’s not just a car. I would be hurtin’ big time if I had to make a monthly payment, but I am starting to hate my old clunker. Oh well 😉
Kyra – The wheels kept falling off? Just the wheels, or the tires too? That is ridiculous! What a bummer that your plan was ruined. You could have saved a lot of money 🙁 My parents own a Model T… I think my brother does too. Ha ha. They’re fun.
Amy – Hoopty?!?! HA HA! I am going to start calling my car that. And my insurance doesn’t even cover my car, so I know what you mean about not … worrying about it so much. I would be paranoid in a new car!
diane – Hee hee hee, somehow I knew about you and the Honda Civic Hybrid 🙂 Hey, YOU don’t need a new car… but maybe Evan does?! ha ha!
CourtneyInControl – You don’t need justification! You deserve it 😉
sizzle – Hey, I do it too… even though I drive a hoopty. 😛
Jenn – I’ve never had to make a car payment, so… it would be a big change. Wouldn’t it be great to just receive a new car… and not have to pay for it? Just gas and tune-ups! woo-hoo!
martymankins – I am not breaking down… yet 😉 And we even discussed a scooter for me 😉 Do you think I am the scooter type? 😛
de – Steven had me giggling when he said them – he called my work phone to tell me!
tori – Wow. I didn’t even think about the tv thing, and what kind of car you need to have when you have kids. Wow. When I see those people on the highway, with their tvs in every seat, I think “WTF”? I mean, do kids need to be brainwashed 24/7 with these DVDs, etc.? Where you disappointed in your daughter when she asked for it, or not surprised?
Nilsa – My car is in pretty good shape because it sat in a garage for MANY years, and my dad is a mechanic and checked it out. BUT – I assume things about other people driving older cars too, like they suck at driving, and don’t have any taste (unless, it’s a classic car, etc.). Hmmm, I thought german engineering was supposed to be good?
Alice – I love your pride! 😀
teeni – You’re right. About all of it. Especially the yucky payments!
claire – I think I am good with the insurance – our cost didn’t even go up when my husband added me to his policy. HA HA!