All of our car talk the other day struck a nerve here.

YA loves cars.  She has always had all the cars in the neighborhood memorized and can tell you the make of any car she sees as we’re driving down the street.  I wondered if she might go into some kind of automotive engineering but she never seemed interested in that route.

When it was time for her to purchase her first car, she did a lot of research.  Unfortunately the first car we went to look at turned out to be one of those cars that was totaled out by an insurance company and fixed up by a third party.  As these cars are generally not insurable and YA needed my name on the loan paperwork, I was able to put my foot down easily on this. 

The second car was at a dealership and didn’t start.  I would have left right then – what kind dealership doesn’t even run down to check that the car will start before an appointment?  But she pleaded with me so we looked another car on the lot.  It didn’t look to me like the kind of thing she would like but she REALLY wanted a car.  The salesman then tried to convince her (while I sitting right there) that leasing a new car would be good.  Her eyes got that kind of glazed-over look.  I squashed this idea as well as telling the sales guy that he was out of line.  But she REALLY wanted a car, so ended up buying one that had fairly low mileage and pretty good price.  I told the sales guy that if he was even thinking of telling her it was pre-owned by a little old grandma, to think again.

This was the car that got sideswiped and totaled out two years later.  Back down to a different dealership.  This car turned out to be a stick, which was why it had been sitting on the lot for a while; the website didn’t say it was a manual so everybody who came to see it passed on it.  I suggested to her that if the dealership couldn’t be bothered to fix the listing online, maybe they weren’t to be overly trusted.  But she REALLY wanted a car so she signed on the dotted line.  Luckily she learned to drive in Civetta, my Honda Civic, which had been a stick. 

She’s whined about this car for a bit over the last few years and in the past month or so had set out a timeline (about 8 months from now) for looking for a new car.

Fast forward to last week.  I got some frantic texts – she had locked herself out of her car at the station/carwash down the street.  Apparently she got out of the car to pay for the carwash and the door swung shut.  I know you’re thinking, how did it get locked?  Well, if the car is RUNNING when you get out to pay for the carwash…….  I drove down with her spare key, but of course it didn’t work.  It took about 20 minutes and $80  to get somebody there to break into her car (AAA had a 2-hour wait).  As I was driving home I thought to myself “that’s the nail in the coffin for that car.”

And I was correct.  A couple of days ater, she took off at lunch with a “I’m going to look at a car” called over her shoulder.  I thought to myself “she’s going to buy a car today”.  Luckily the days of my having to go with her are over.    I was correct again – she bought a car.  A new car.  Honda (I can’t remember the make) with some kind of hatch back and I think it’s a hybrid as well.  Won’t know for sure until the end of June when she picks it up.  She’s done the math and says she can afford it, although she did sheepishly say she should probably cut back on some of her clothing/shoe purchases for a while.  Good thing she’s living rent-free with mom!

There’s been A LOT of car talk the last few days – I’m just grinning it and bearing it – hopefully it will die down for a bit soon.  At least until it gets closer to the car’s arrival!

What is something that you just had to have?