ok, i am facing the reality that sometime in the forseeable future-- like before the end of 2004-- i'm going to need to have a new daily driver so spacepod can get a break and go into semi-retirement.
problem is, i can't make a decision about what kind of vehicle that new daily driver should be. sarah asked me what i was considering, and i wrote out the whole long list, which i'm going to re-post here, more for my own records than because i think it will be of great interest to other people.
too expensive to buy and/or maintain:
may not be reliable, but i could learn to work on it myself. not safe in a crash by current standards. would have to wake up earlier b/c driving it over 55 every day would spell an early death to the engine:
same issues as above, but with higher initial cost and may be harder to work on myself:
other options:
I strongly advise against a car with no air conditioning as a daily driver. It's nice in the spring and fall, but 6 pm on an August afternoon you do not want to be sitting in a car stuck in traffic with the windows open.
When I drove my Toyota, there were times that I needed to run errands after work but by the time I got there, I was so fatigued from the heat and unpresentable (i.e. clothes all sweaty) that I would just go home instead. It was no fun.
Posted by: Sarah on January 11, 2004 12:55 PMwell, i will still be driving spacepod sometimes. actually, he will *need* to be driven, and the a/c will need to be used, too, so i am not overly concerned about that.
Posted by: lisa on January 11, 2004 01:18 PMplus, no A/C builds character!
just look at me... i'm *oozing* character!!
Posted by: christa on January 11, 2004 02:25 PMFuck it -- don't get another car. Drive this one until you literally can't afford to repair it any more. Two cars is worse than one car. I thought I'd fix the older one while I drove the newer one daily, but I haven't done that, and I've had the new car for 15 months. Of course, I'm pissed because someone vandalized my car over the weekend.... Maybe they did it because I have two cars. :/ But if you do get a second car, pick something you'll like driving (which I think means AC in the South).
Posted by: Joseph H Vilas on January 11, 2004 10:56 PMbelieve me, one of my big fears is winding up with a rotting hunk of unmoveable metal in front of my house, and several thousand dollars down the drain. this is why plans to own a car that i could/should repair myself scare me. also, older cars that i can't tow with spacepod also scare me (like a vanagon).
but the reality is, i put 25k a year on spacepod. i don't know where the miles are coming from. the roswell trip accounts for *maybe* 4k a year. at this rate, even if the engine goes a very optimisitc 300k, i've only got 8 more years on the engine, and that's not ok! i've killed three engines in my life and i'm not going to do it to spacepod.
Posted by: lisa on January 11, 2004 11:46 PM