My new car

Well I did it. Yesterday I purchased a 2009 Honda Accord. While the Volvo VT 880 would have provided an excellent opportunity to cruise the streets of Houston, I decided that the economics of it simply were not feasible.

Thanks to the "Cash for Clunkers" government program, I was able to get a pretty slick deal on the Accord. After looking at both the Toyota Camry and Nissan Altima, the Accord was the hands down winner possessing the pros of both cars with none of the cons. The Accord is very roomy and has quite a lot of giddy-up. In fact, the only real thing I dont like about the car in the driver seat. After more than 10 years of sitting on a 4 inch think piece of foam, it is going to take a while to get used to these new less comfortable seats. They just dont make em' like they used to amirite?

The best part of the transaction yesterday was the turning over of my clunker to the dealership and having to explain all the caveats and quirks. Somewhat ironically, the clicker that unlocks the doors to my Explorer died just yesterday leaving the car completely inaccessible save for the only working key latch on the car which happens to be the trunk. I also had to explain how to hold down the alarm override switch while turning the ignition in order to start the car. Those features will not be missed.

I was able to get the salesman into the "come on, guy, you're breaking my balls here" mode so I walked away feeling as if I had done the haggling to the best of my ability. I named my price and after several tense negotiations, I got it. The whole experience was quite exhilarating.and I did the whole thing on an empty stomach. There was quite a bit of the old "Well my manager ain't going to agree to that" and all that other nonsense. I was a bit disappointed that he never offered to"throw in the under coating for free" or anything else like that you usually see on tv.

When I got the car home, I learned that it had an Emergency Trunk Release. I proceeded to hop into the back of the trunk and test it out to see if it worked. It did. In hindsight, this should have been something I tested out at the dealership. Imagine how funny it would be to get in the trunk, test out the release and then in a dead pan manner ask the sales guy if there was any way for it to be disabled and that it would be a deal breaker if you could not. Hilarity surely would have ensued.

So now I have my new car. Hopefully I am able to drive it into the ground the same way as I did with my Exploder. Would I have purchased a car if it were not for the government rebate program? Probably not. I most likely would have continued to dump massive sums of money into my Exploder until it simply ceased to run anymore. I am feeling pretty good to go with the car. Here's to another 120,000 miles.