March 31, 2003
My wife wants a new car. The car she has, a Suzuki Grand Vitara, is too small for her. She feels claustrophobic when Rowan and I are in there with her and we've just done some shopping. She doesn't like that it skids a lot in the rain. It's also got something wrong with the transfer casing, something that neither of us know anything about and not nearly enough to know if we're being taken at the mechanics shop or the dealer. So she's opting for a new vehicle.
The vehicle of choice is the 2003 Buick Rendezvous. Rendezvous is a Franglais word that we take to mean, "meeting place" or "meeting event." The actual French, rendez vous means to present yourself at an appointment, or be present depending on the tense. So Buick has taken this vehicle and given it a colloquialism as a name. It's a rather odd name if you ask me. I'm with Carlin on this, when did we stop giving cars cool names like Cobra and Mustang. I'd even settle for more alpha-numeric titles like 911 or 5000. I'm only guessing Trans Am means Trans American, which only makes some sense, where else would it be driven.
But I've gone off topic, back to buying a new car.
It's not that I don't want to have a new car, it's that this is a $32,000 gas guzzler. It's very nice on the inside; leather, DVD player, all the bells and whistles. (Literally, there's a beeping when you are in reverse. Presumably because at some point a large SUV backed over a kid and the ensuing legal action required it.) The point is more that I'm afraid of change and a bigger car note. (Sidebar, it's called car note in Texas. When I was still in CO it was car payment. I move down here and everything in a "note." House note, car note. Can't southerners say "payment?") We may have a larger family in the future so a larger car is definitely in order. My question is how did our parents do it? Growing up we had one car at a time. The first was a 69 or 72 gold Ford station wagon. The next was a Datsun B210. I don't know if you guys remember Datsuns, they were the precursor to Nissans, but smaller. The B210 was about the size of a Geo Storm. Family of four, groceries, extra kids from soccer. How did it all work? Why only now are we buying these 7 seat behemoths? I feel like it's over kill, but I also don't really get the music today or reality TV so maybe I'm just old. Yes I like the space, yes I like the sleek design, but man that gas mileage really gets in my craw. Her car now doesn't do great, neither does mine. It just shows where our priorities are. I keep thinking of getting out of my lovely Kia Sportage and into a hybrid car.
Anyway, she's going to find out today if we qualify so look for more posts on how the monster works in real life.
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The vehicle of choice is the 2003 Buick Rendezvous. Rendezvous is a Franglais word that we take to mean, "meeting place" or "meeting event." The actual French, rendez vous means to present yourself at an appointment, or be present depending on the tense. So Buick has taken this vehicle and given it a colloquialism as a name. It's a rather odd name if you ask me. I'm with Carlin on this, when did we stop giving cars cool names like Cobra and Mustang. I'd even settle for more alpha-numeric titles like 911 or 5000. I'm only guessing Trans Am means Trans American, which only makes some sense, where else would it be driven.
But I've gone off topic, back to buying a new car.
It's not that I don't want to have a new car, it's that this is a $32,000 gas guzzler. It's very nice on the inside; leather, DVD player, all the bells and whistles. (Literally, there's a beeping when you are in reverse. Presumably because at some point a large SUV backed over a kid and the ensuing legal action required it.) The point is more that I'm afraid of change and a bigger car note. (Sidebar, it's called car note in Texas. When I was still in CO it was car payment. I move down here and everything in a "note." House note, car note. Can't southerners say "payment?") We may have a larger family in the future so a larger car is definitely in order. My question is how did our parents do it? Growing up we had one car at a time. The first was a 69 or 72 gold Ford station wagon. The next was a Datsun B210. I don't know if you guys remember Datsuns, they were the precursor to Nissans, but smaller. The B210 was about the size of a Geo Storm. Family of four, groceries, extra kids from soccer. How did it all work? Why only now are we buying these 7 seat behemoths? I feel like it's over kill, but I also don't really get the music today or reality TV so maybe I'm just old. Yes I like the space, yes I like the sleek design, but man that gas mileage really gets in my craw. Her car now doesn't do great, neither does mine. It just shows where our priorities are. I keep thinking of getting out of my lovely Kia Sportage and into a hybrid car.
Anyway, she's going to find out today if we qualify so look for more posts on how the monster works in real life.
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