On the weekend before taking my car Crayola in to the shop, I decided to try to best Murphy’s Law by looking for a new car. I wasn’t sure that the damage to Crayola was catastrophic, but with that car even a repair bill of $2,000 made him not worth fixing. And the problems were severe enough that I couldn’t rely on him in the meantime. So I figured that I would look at getting a new (used) car. The more I looked, Murphy’s Law would dictate, the less necessary it would be.

It was a fun experience. I’ve never actually purchased a car before. I’ve always gotten hand-me-downs. Even when I got a car that was new to the family, it was usually some deal that my father arranged. The cheapest car available that met the criteria. What I wanted (justly) did not matter. So I took it and was always grateful. But here we were in a situation where I would actually be able to choose a car. Though we’d have to buy a relatively inexpensive used car, our definition of “inexpensive” wasn’t $2-6k and our definition of “used” was really “barely used”, 10-20k miles.

It’s sort of like when I was a kid, my parents wouldn’t buy me the nicest shows but I at least had the option of getting something in a style that I liked. I’ve always been partial to high-tops, for instance, so I could get cheap high-tops. As my feet got bigger, the selection got smaller. As I turned the corner passed 13 into 14 and later 15, it would become a matter not so much of choosing what I liked but asking, with pleading eyes, what if anything they had in my size. Then online shoe stores became all the rage and suddenly I was a kid again, being able to choose something that I actually wanted.

So here I was, actually looking at different makes and models that I could actually own. It was like being a kid at the shoe store again. Further, all of the models I’ve previously owned and liked (Dodge Colt, Chrysler Lebaron, and Ford Escort) are all long-since discontinued. So I had to leave my comfort zone. Exciting! Even further, I come from a Dodge-Ford family (Dodge up until 98 or so, Ford since, with one aberrant Chevy), but with Detroit in the shape it’s in, I would have to even look at foreign cars. A very {chuckle} foreign concept {sorry, couldn’t resist} to me. I figured that since I had married into a Toyota family that I would become a Toyota person by default (sorta like how a vaguely religious person who marries into a more strictly religious family tends to adopt that faith if they will have them), but a guy could dream, right?

I was mostly interested in a subcompact of some sort. I like cars that get good mileage. Having had round-trip commutes that range from 60 miles to 115 miles in my last three jobs, I’m particularly price-conscious. Beyond that, while I’m not much of an environmentalist, if I can get something more economically friendly that’s one of the things that I can actually do and I’d like to do so. Not enough to get a hybrid or anything (not until there is a solid used market in my price range and my driving habits would be able to take advatange), but something is better than nothing. Oh, and did I mention that mileage makes a pretty big difference on a 90-mile daily commute?

Beyond that, I actually like small cars. My favorite car has always been a Dodge Colt. My least favorite have been the vans I’ve driven and the Land Barge I drove for a while. Despite the fact that my body is not built for a small car, I like a small footprint for parking and maneuverability reasons. I have also become near-phobic of vans since a near accident several years ago. And though we have some money saved up, the less spent the better. All of this pointed to a subcompact.

The only concern about compacts I have is ceiling space. Crayola, my current 2D Ford Escort, is too short. I can deal with my knee inadvertently changing the volume on the radio, but I don’t like to have to slouch in my car. So I wanted something small but with more interior space. That lead me to the Nissan Versa, which has ads that specifically boast interior space. Sure enough, it’s 60″, 8″ taller than Crayola. Come to find out that the Escort is unusually short for a car (52-53″). Even though it’s not a subcompact, most of the subcompacts I looked at were significantly taller, the only big exception being the Hyundai Accent (55″), though even that was 3″ taller. The Toyota Yaris was 57.5″.

So most of my early looking around involved that Nissan Versa and all its glorious height. It had pretty solid reviews, though the gas mileage wasn’t as good as with most of the other subcompacts (it was comparable to the Escort’s mileage, in fact). I also found myself looking at the Kia Rio, which was notably less expensive than the Versa and with solid gas mileage. A little bit shorter (58″), but certainly closer to the Versa than the Escort. Plus, Rios were cheaper despite including features (MP3 player, bluetooth) that Nissan wants extra for. Unfortunately, a glance of the reviews scratch the Rio from consideration. Complaints of breakdowns and of having difficulty getting them serviced. Beyond that, the rental car that Enterprise gave me was a Rio and I was not very impressed by it

The car that I liked the most was the Dodge Caliber. The Caliber was the successor to the Neon which was the successor to my beloved Colt. It was as tall as the Versa, though classified as a compact rather than a subcompact. Besides its tie with the Colt, the biggest attraction to it was entirely superficial. I just love the way it looks. And it’s a Dodge, which pulls me back to its roots. Beyond superficiality, though, it was priced out of what I could justify paying. Besides which, Dodge is a Chrysler brand and there’s a lot going on in their household that I would prefer steer clear of.

The Yaris looked attractive, but it lost on cost points with a slightly higher price than the Versa. Ditto for the Honda Fit, which my ex-roommate Hubert drives and endorses. I kept it in mind, though, if I could get a good deal on it. That was another problem with the Yaris, though. While Nissan makes the Versa rather central to their line, the Yaris seems to be treated something like an ugly step-child within Toyota.

So I’d more-or-less decided on the Versa. I was going to look around to see good deals on the other cars, but the Versa was what I had in mind. But, of course, the purpose of all of this looking was that I wouldn’t have to buy a new car. And that was what happened. The cost of repairs ($1,100) was just outside of what I was comfortable paying, but I needed to make a choice quickly and the overall sense was that the problems were isolated and not indicative of larger problems that would cost more down the road. Beyond that, since we’re going to be moving again soon I figure that it would be better not to buy a car until we know where we’re moving to. The Versa is the perfect choice for the Zaulem Sound area, where parking, maneuverability, and mileage matter a great deal. It makes less sense in the rural place that we’re likely to end up and I should tailor my choice around that. So I got it fixed. I have to confess that a part of me was a little disappointed that I wouldn’t be getting something novel and interesting. Further, given the givens about what happens next in terms of cars, it’s unlikely that I will ever own any of these neat cars that I was looking at. It was going to be the Crayola and after the Crayola it was going to be a different kind of car (something more family-friendly and maybe with AWD).

My sense turned out to be wrong, though. Problems with Crayola have already started creeping up again. It’s not throwing tantrums when going uphill, but it’s not happy about it. No problems with high speeds, though, and mileage is good. But since my employment at Mindstorm is coming to an end I have to look at different criteria. Criteria I frankly should have been looking towards when I was trying to tempt Murphy’s Law. Something with All-Wheel Drive and something family friendly. So I’ve since been making my acquaintance with the Subaru family of cars. Subaru apparently specializes in AWD and it’s available on all of their models and pretty standard with them as well. I would like for the Truman family to be a one-make family if at all possible. I found it helpful when all of our cars growing up were made by Dodge and later Ford. That Subarus are almost all built with AWD means that I can do so with the flexibility of AWD cars (Impreza and Legacy) to crossover (Outback and Forester) to {shudder} 3-row minivan (Tribeca) all with AWD. This assumes that we’re going to end up somewhere with snow and the like that AWD is important. If we end up in Estacado, I’ll look elsewhere.

Though so far it’s proven to be nothing but sunk time, I’ve enjoyed looking at all of these cars. It’s something I’ve never really been able to do before. Among other things, I’ve learned the appeal of new cars compared to used. Particularly in the current market when they’re doing everything they can in order to get you to buy new. The price difference is closing, but more than just that I’ve learned that getting a new car may be the only way to get the features that you want that if you decide to tack-on to the price of a used car closes the gap further still. Not completely, though, so I will probably end up with another used car. But I’ll do a lot more comparisons before making that choice official, though. I’ve also learned that I will probably never buy a German car.

The other benefit is that it’s made my commutes more enjoyable. I’ve had a great time looking at all the cars I’m stuck in traffic with. That was what turned me on to Subaru and the Dodge Caliber to begin with. It’s given me something to do when there isn’t much to do. I’m always grateful for that.