Ever since I drove that Sea Foam Green Miata about a month ago I’ve had the itch to get a new car. This one is the oldest and highest mileage car I’ve owned at 8 years and 124k miles. Ever since we have been married we have always had a nice automobile that we bought new. Although there is nothing really wrong with the Miata, I think I’d like the feeling of a new taught car.
The trouble is that in the past eight years Miatas have crept up into the middle 20’s and that just seems like too much money for, in essence, a small car. On the plus side, Mazda is offering 0% interest on 2003 models and they might be willing to deal some to clean the lot of these “old” cars. The bad news is that the Miata doesn’t come in, what I consider, a decent shade of blue.
On the other hand I am intrigued by the new Mini. A brand new Mini Cooper can be had for around $20k and a supercharged S for only three thousand more. On the plus side for them is they have two shades of blue that appear acceptable and they are a excellent handling car for a front-driver. The down side is they aren’t convertibles and from what I’ve read on the MINI2 forums the quality in certain areas is suspect.
I guess there is option #3 to consider, take an antibiotic to squash the fever. I may need heavy doses after Saturday, we are going to Charleston to test drive Minis.
Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2627.54
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 277