Entering the age of GREEN

Well, the lease was up on the Mazda Miata and as much as we hated giving up that fun little sportscar,  the buy-back was ridiculous. And we figured that we are going to need a car with more space in the future. Patricia’s job is changing and she may be doing more travelling with boxes to schlep and miles to cover. So for the last couple of months we went on a car hunt. We started with the new hardtop Miata, which P fell in love with and was a bit more practical than our ragtop but from the start I knew it wasn’t happening. She was not as in love with the other offerings from Mazda so we moved on to Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Nissan, Subaru, Hyundai (a big surprise – we almost bought the new Touring), Ford and Saturn. I purposely skipped Chevy, Saab (Chevy) – in fact we skipped GMC all together, Audi and anything that I knew was going to be an arm and a leg like BMW, Lexus or Mercedes.

We wanted economy – cause we’re more broke than we used to be – fuel efficiency, some style – because Patricia demands it - and we knew we wanted another lease. It came down to the Prius (so green, so nice), the Jetta (too small) and the aforementioned Hyundai. Patricia was leaning to the Prius but the lease wasn’t great and I was really pushing for a Passat, which was more than I wanted to spend but really a sweet ride.

In the end we got a little help from our friend Dan Romance (great name for a pulp fiction character). Dan is setting up a car buyers concierge service. Instead of the headache of finding the right car, Dan will do all the leg work for his customers, make the best deal (because he has a better relationship with the dealership owners than you do) and all you have to do is pick up the car and drive away. Since we had already narrowed down our choices, Dan’s job was relatively easy.

Patricia picked up the Prius yesterday and I am happy to say that she is still happy with her decision. That says a lot because buyers remorse is a disease she caught at about age 16. The GPS with a sweet woman’s voice makes her feel secure , as she has zero sense of direction, and the keyless entry and starter is great in Florida where it’s always raining and she always has her hands full. And 50 miles to the gallon, in a time when every penny counts and gas prices are going up (again), probably to $4 a gallon and maybe more, well, that just makes a lot of sense.

I like the fact that we’ve gone green. It actually is a very satisfying feeling to ride with the best and I am glad that our technologically advanced auto is everything it’s cracked up to be. I guess the next question is what am I going to do about my 12 year old Explorer!