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Letters From Little Rock |
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a semi-regular column
Letters From Little Rock is my column on whatever topic strikes my fancy at the time. Check in as often as you like, but I make no promise as to when new columns will appear. I hope to add a column on a weekly basis, but honesty compels me to admit that I might not even maintain a monthly schedule. May 9, 2004 Well, I finally broke down and bought a new car. Actually, truth is, my old car broke down so I had to buy a new one. If you've read the earlier installments of Irregular Thoughts, you know I've been having car troubles lately. I opted for a Honda Civic LX. So far I love it. I was driving a 1988 Olds Cutlass Cierra so pretty much any new car would have seemed space age to me. It sure is a relief to be able to get in the car without the fear of breaking down constantly nagging me. Of course, if I did break down in this thing I'd have no idea what to do about it. I looked under the hood after I got it home and it took me several minutes to find the spark plugs. Hell, what'd I expect, I had to go to the manual to find the damn cup-holders. But I love the way it handles, I love the surprising pep of the four cylinder engine, most of all I love the gas mileage. I drove two days before I could tell the gauge had even moved. I know a lot of you probably expect to get 30 mpg or better, but to me it's a little like black magic. I've always owned clunkers, usually cars that were at least ten years old when I bought them. I guess if I'd been a little more sensible five years ago I'd have bought a new vehicle then. I was in the middle of changing jobs at the time. I went through an employment agency that placed me with an aircraft completions center on a temp to hire deal. The only catch was they sent you to a make believe class for four weeks before they sent you to the job site. Their reasoning was simple; it made a lot of money for them and they weren't going to send any flakes out there so they just wanted to be sure you would actually show up before they sent you out there. On the last day, the day we got our shift assignments, I hit a deer with my van. I limped it to the class and afterwards spent some time in the parking lot getting it running so I could go home. The next day I went to a used car lot and spent about $2,600 on my Olds. I've always been a little bit mad at that car for having to be bought, and for having cost me so much money above what I considered reasonable. That's why I didn't run right out and buy the first thing that caught my eye when I decided the olds must go. Instead I actually spent almost a year researching in preparation to buying. I'm not saying Honda makes the best car in the world, but an awful lot of consumer groups do say that. I don't normally go out of my way to say good things about car salesmen, but the person I dealt with was outstanding. I don't like to be pressured and I don't like to be pitched. He responded to my questions with full but not lengthy answers. Sometimes salesmen do like to shoot a line of bull and go into such detail that they confuse you; he didn't do that. When I asked about the Civic Hybrid he told me it was a really good car, but there probably wasn't enough difference to justify the disparity in prices. That's all I needed to hear, sold.
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