2004 has been good to me. As a reward, I decided to buy myself a new car for Christmas. There's nothing really wrong with my GT, I just get bored with sameness. Two years is too long for me. I'm at 25 months with this car, and I'm sick of it. I need some new excitement.
I've never really handpicked a car before, and so I've never totally been happy with any of them. My first two cars were gifts and were free of charge, so there's no sane person on earth that would complain about those. The 1986 Buick Skyhawk cost my parents $1200 on my 16th birthday (1994). A great little first car. Typical mid-eighties Detroit tank. I wrecked it two weeks before graduation; I used my grad money to fix it up. For a future designer, that was heaven. I took a color swatch book home and picked out the color scheme. I settled on a midtone metallic blue with a hint of turquoise in it, and purple and navy pinstripes. Good stuff.
When I went away to college, my parents bequeathed me the hunter green grandness of the 1996 Buick Skylark (move ahead a decade, change "Hawk" to "Lark", that's Buick for ya). Awesome car, great gas mileage, terrific power until I wore it out. I ran that car until it had 180,000 miles on it. When maintenance became as much as a monthly payment, it was time to buy something. I had planned to wait until spring of 2003, but the car died in my parents driveway while I was home for Thankgiving in '02. I had two days to pick out a new car.
The dealerships in Fort Dodge didn't have what I wanted, but I had to get back to Omaha, so I settled for the Pontiac Grand Am GT. So I drove the GT for two years. And now I'm sick of it. Just tired of driving the same old thing. Its time for something new. Over the next week, I'll be testdriving a lot of cars, in my quest to find the right ride. This is the first time in my life that I can pick the car myself -- and I'm going to enjoy it.
As I test drive cars, I'll post my thoughts so my readers can see what I think of various automobiles. First up is the Chevy Cavalier (no intention of buying it, but I have free money coming my way if I buy a Chevy, so I'll give it a shot). Second will be the Toyota Corolla. And after that, the Mazda 3, Volkswagen Jetta GLS, and others.
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