a new car!
by John at 5/30/2007 09:53:00 PM
Last Tuesday, as I was driving home from the store with an ice cream cake for Wendy's birthday, our car broke down. Luckily, it broke down right as I pulled into the driveway so the cake didn't melt.
Anyway, as I turned into the driveway, the power steering went out, the engine started to make a grinding noise, and pretty soon smoke started coming out of the passenger side front wheel well. When I opened the hood (after the smoke cleared a bit) there was oil all over the fan belts and splattered around the left half of the engine.
We talked it over and decided that because 1) I would have to get the car towed to a service station just to find out what was wrong with it, 2) the eleven year old Saab 900 was worth only $1400 when it was working, and 3) Wendy's experience is that the Saab is always expensive to fix, we decided to write it off (literally - we will donate it to charity) and just get a new car.
I wanted a subcompact, so the next day we test drove a loaded Toyota Yaris Liftback (super cute but sluggish), a Nissan Versa Hatchback SL with continuous variable transmission (drove like a bigger car, but had a poor cargo design with rear seats that did not fold flat), and a Honda Fit Sport with a manual transmission (drove like a small car, but had enough power and excellent cargo room). We got the Fit Sport. It's cool, based on the 160 miles we've driven it so far. I recommend it if you are in the market for a small car.
Anyway, as I turned into the driveway, the power steering went out, the engine started to make a grinding noise, and pretty soon smoke started coming out of the passenger side front wheel well. When I opened the hood (after the smoke cleared a bit) there was oil all over the fan belts and splattered around the left half of the engine.
We talked it over and decided that because 1) I would have to get the car towed to a service station just to find out what was wrong with it, 2) the eleven year old Saab 900 was worth only $1400 when it was working, and 3) Wendy's experience is that the Saab is always expensive to fix, we decided to write it off (literally - we will donate it to charity) and just get a new car.
I wanted a subcompact, so the next day we test drove a loaded Toyota Yaris Liftback (super cute but sluggish), a Nissan Versa Hatchback SL with continuous variable transmission (drove like a bigger car, but had a poor cargo design with rear seats that did not fold flat), and a Honda Fit Sport with a manual transmission (drove like a small car, but had enough power and excellent cargo room). We got the Fit Sport. It's cool, based on the 160 miles we've driven it so far. I recommend it if you are in the market for a small car.
