New Car
Today I bought a new car. I didn’t want to buy a new car but I really didn’t have a choice. The VW Jetta that I acquired less than a year ago and had just recently turned a mature 400,000K, and which I was assured was “just broken in”, well, it decided that it would no longer clutch. No clutch. At all. I discovered that it is possible, albeit frustrating, to drive a manual transmission without the aid of a clutch however it does require some creative and daring driving techniques to do so. For example, 1st gear can only be attained while at a dead stop with the engine off. I’ll let the imagination paint the picture. Therefore having our one and only vehicle in a precarious state of health we had limited options. We could either pay to have the thing repaired at a price that would be roughly equal to or greater than the value of the vehicle, we could replace the transmission with an available used transmission in the driveway, or we could bite the bullet and find the cheapest car possible and pay good money for the next 5 years. Option 1 was just totally unpalatable in ways I cannot describe so I will move on. Option 2 would require too much time (and patience). Having my only car out of commission adds a certain amount of panic to any maintenance I undertake on my vehicles and things (read “my mental state”) tend to go south very quickly. I would not only have to remove the damaged transmission from my car but also remove the used transmission from the parts car, and then reinstall it again. I’ve never done any work with a transmission before. I’m an aircraft mechanic. We just don’t deal with transmissions. Which leaves Option 3. Option 3 had the most positives.
- Reliable car
- Warranties
- No scrambling around in the driveway
- New car smell
- No scrambling around in the driveway
You get the picture. We did have to take a good hard look at our finances though. We anticipated that a newer car had to be in our future sooner or later so we had been looking at new cars but we also knew that we would probably have to do some cutting in other areas in order for it to happen. Amy also would have to make some extra effort in selling Pampered Chef to bring in the needed income. In the end though we decided to buy a Kia Rio5. Why a Kia you ask? Mostly because it is the cheapest car to finance on the market today. Yes it is a cheap car. But it is also a NEW car with a very good warranty and is surprisingly comfortable to drive. We chose Solar Flare because that was the one on the lot. It has some cool features like heated seats, Bluetooth, heated side mirrors, and a plug-in for your iPod. Other than that, it is a car. I would like to say that I’m excited but I’m really kind of blasé about it. I’m a mechanic and I know that machines of any sort are just waiting for a chance to break down. It doesn’t matter how well you treat them, eventually they will betray you. I have a new car, but it is not my friend.
