Misc. thoughts on cars

I guess I can’t hate on the newspaper job too much. It got me this van:

I got three years of use out of this one, not counting the times when it sat waiting to get fixed. Or towed home. I have to think fairely well of it; it was about the best cheap used car I ever had. The A/C even worked, after I tighened the belt. Of course, I didn’t trust it farther than Trimet, the buses, ran. I dared to drive it to the Gorge a couple of times, but I didn’t have the nerve to go any much further with it.

I got that Plymouth Voyager in 2005; but that summer when K* came to visit, we rented a better minivan:

A new Chrysler Town and Country that made my van look so plain and old. I got us a good deal on this one; I had reserved a cheapo rental car but all the local Enterprise office had was this van. They told us we could wait until they got the reserved car, or they could give us the van for the same price. Oooookaaaaaay, I gueeeessss we could do that.

heh heh heh

That Voyager minivan got me this with a generous trade-in:

2008 Dodge Caliber SE+, at Crater Lake NP.

I loved that color. I traded the SE for an 09 SXT Sport, a black one, but ya know, I really liked the blue better. There was nothing wrong with this car – not a thing went wrong with it in the 15,000 miles I had it. I drove it down to SoCal twice. The black SXT Sport has more options and conveniences than the blue one did (sunroof!!!) I see the 2011 models are nicely loaded even at the bottom of the series. Cruise, power windows and mirrors – even the base Calibers are pretty nice. I’ve got nearly 25,000 miles on the black car now (and I am soo glad I’m not adding the miles the paper route took) and it’s all that I’ve ever wanted in a car.

I loved that Surf Blue Pearl color though – a 3 year run, a limited edition color.

I went to the post office to mail some of the vacation pics to K* last week – some of them print out really nicely – and I swear I saw my old car. That beautiful blue car.

It made me happy and remourseful at the same time. I’m happy that I treated that car really well, and that it began it’s life with me – it should be a long life, because I took good care of it, from the beginning. I felt a little remorse too, because, frankly, I love that color.

Don’t get me wrong – the black one’s pretty freakin’ cool. This time of year, I very much appreciate the heated seats. The blue one didn’t have ’em.

If I had gotten a Surf Blue Pearl SXT Sport instead of a black one, the seats would have had blue inserts in them, not the red ones the black car has, and ya know, red’s better inside than blue. I’ve come to like the red dash too – red is black at night, and it hides better than the dull silver dash the blue car had.

I guess blue and red would have been sorta weird.

It’s ok that I’m kinda wimpy now – I guess I should get used to saying "I’m almost 50". Heated seats are NICE.

Whatever color they are.

Gotta s

ay though that I am really disappointed that Dodge doesn’t advertise the Calibers much. I think they are great little cars.

(Check it out: on the lot of "my" dealership is a 2007 Dodge Charger Daytona. Limited edition. 1 of 1,500 produced. LESS THAN 22 thou. Less than my brand new Caliber cost. 368 HP 5.7 L Hemi and the best supension they make. "Sublime Green". It will be a classic in 20 years. Collectible NOW. If I won the lottery tomorrow….)