AutoNeurotica

NEW CAR SMELL! The wife got a new car last weekend. Mitsubishi Montero. I think Sport, but I'm not sure. It's a great car, bigger than her Suzuki, we had to put a few hundred down but we got a good rate and decent payments, plus a 100,000 mile warranty. Pretty slick.

But the best part about getting a new car was the salesman. The guy was early 50's maybe and looked exactly like Robert Michum. I wanted to ask him if he was actually the fastest draw this side of the Pecos even with his drinking problem, but that may have colored the good interest rate so I witheld the witty comments. Most of the transaction was done over the phone prior to getting the car, so all we had to do was sign some papers. I still don't like buying cars. As hassle free as this was, I still have the feeling I'm getting taken. Yeah, cars are expensive and there is a huge amount of financing and what not to deal with. You spend a great deal of time in them and rely on them and they have to be safe, comfortable, user friendly, good on gas, visually pleasing and affordable at the same time. We had less problems with our house than we did the last two cars we bought. Plus we had to finance old debt into this. I can't wait until we pay that damn Tercel off. What a pain in the bumper that turned out to be. I'll be 40 before that POS situation figures itself out, unless I hit the lottery and can pay off both cars. Wouldn't that be the day.

But the new SUV is nice, didn't get leather like the wife wanted, but it's still sleek black, CD player, neat whistles and bells. I'd have liked a DVD player for road trips for the munchkin, but we can custom job one of those.