New Car Time
Assuming that you're a few bucks ahead in life, now is the time to (1) buy real estate and (2) buy a car.
Assuming the bank will give you credit, which of course is the rub.
Popping the housing bubble produced bargains, if you can find and afford them. And while credit is really tight, for those who can be "approved" for low or zero APR, car dealers are willing to give you lots of free stuff if you can only move the cars off their lots.
I have a 2000 Eclipse with 107,000 miles, which means it's mere minutes from every seal blowing out and the water pump exploding (which is what happened to my last Eclipse at more or less the 110,000-mile mark).
I happen to like sporty cars. Because I live in the middle of nowhere, and because it's a 15-mile round trip to the nearest grocery store or post office or bank, when I drive somewhere I want it to be fun, goddammit! (And also I don't want my water pump exploding when I'm 45 miles from home. Which has happened.)
So one of the sporty cars I was interested in was the Nissan Altima coupe. So I took one for a drive, and talked with the sales guy for a while, and was a bit disappointed that the APR they were offering was higher than the interest rate on my house. Perceiving this, the sales guy said, "I can give you a much better APR if you buy the four-door, cuz they're not selling as well."
"What's the difference between the two-door and the four-door?"
"Other than the doors, nothing. Oh yeah, and the four-door has a thousand-dollar rebate and a lot of extras on it that are, basically, free, like a sun roof and fog lights and sporty wheels and this weird little secret compartment in the dashboard that can be used for firearms and contraband."
"Show me a four-door," I said, quick as usual on the uptake.
So now I own a four-door Nissan. It purrs very well. The contraband and the firearms have yet to be installed.
Labels: new car, nissan altima
posted by dubjay at 7:35 PM
8 Comments:
Nice looking car. What's the gas mileage?
It took me a year to find the secret door on the dash of my Nissan Frontier. The dealer didnt show it, and it is really unobtrusive
May I say that, the best feature of the Nissan, from my point of view, is that it is very comfortable for the passenger!
That picture Walter has shows a little door in the front bumper near the headlight. There is not a parallel one on the other side.
Anyone know what the little door is for?
--Kathy
Gas mileage is in the 30mpg range. The 6-speed manual transmission probably has a lot to do with that.
I still haven't figured out how half the things on it work. And there are probably any number of things on the car that I don't even know about.
Kicks butt on the highway, though.
At a guess, that little door on the front bumper might be access to a socket wired up to the car's computers, for a technician to plug into and run diagnostics.
I've never owned a sedan before.
I feel as if I've crossed some strange social divide, but I don't quite know what it is.
I was sort of hoping that the little door in the front bumper was some sort of James Bond device, which would allow Walter to shoot torpedoes as he barreled down the highway.
On second thought, perhaps the world is a better place if Walter doesn't have torpedo capability.
--Kathy
You've been seduced by the cult of the Sedan. Hauling crap around is much easier now. You'll be tempted to just throw your boots and skills in the easy to access back seats. Your shoes will now live in the foot well in the back, cause it's easy to access and find.
You've crossed over into the world where convenience trumps fun and excitement.
Screw it, you can finally fit the extra large pizza on the back seat!
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