Crap, Now What?

My quest for new car ownership took a major blow today. The Mini Undewhelmed us. Not bad, but it was no Miata.

After 3 years of no car payments, when we do undertake them I would like them as small as possible. Ideally $300, with 325 really being the max I feel comfortable with. With a Mini that was a distinct possibility, with a new Miata it is a lot further out of reach. Then you have to take into consideration that insurance will now go up for your more expensive car, next year’s (and hereafter’s) tax bill goes up too.

There is zero percent financing on 2003 Miatas until next Monday, so for 60 months, $300 would be financing a total of $18,000. Even if the dealer was generous and gave me what KBB claims is a private party price of $4k, that only brings me to the 22 thousand mark. That is base Miata territory and if I’m buying I would want the upscale L package for the cruise and limited slip.

The other option open is there is a rebate on Miatas of $2750 until next Monday, 12/1. This is more appealing as in the price range we are in here and available interest rates now it is cheaper to take the money off up front.

The real problem with all of this is the same one that sent me Mini shopping to begin with, there is no real color Miata out there that really appeals to me. Most the ’03s left over out there are that hideous Splash Green and the equally as repulsive Special Edition color of Strato Blue (which is more violet than blue.) It is almost enough to drive a man to buy a red car. Actually there a few Garnet Red (which is actually more maroonish) cars out there and Donna kinda likes it, but I can’t abide by the tan color interior I’ve seen them with and I’m not too sure they would look good with my interior color of choice, black.

There just may not be a new car in my future. Small sporty convertibles are few and far between. The Toyota MR2 is too quirky looking and has less storage space than the average women’s purse. Boxsters and SLKs are out of my league. I guess I could start looking at 2 year old Honda S2000s, they came in sort of an attractive blue with a blue interior.

Mini Underwhelms

The day I’ve anticipated for 2 weeks came and went. After a chilly drive down (the 1st half with the top down, until we got too cold) I drove right by the dealership. The Mini place shares the building with the BMW folks and it is a new building that is attractively landscaped. Unfortunately the palmetto trees and other plants practically hide the place from the road unless you know it is there. I guess this is probably OK with them because it fits more in with what I think the BMW car dealer philosophy might be, if you want one of our cars, come find us. Not like your basic US/Japanese dealer where the cars are on spinning pedestals 6 inches from the road with flags and balloons flapping everywhere. Really, has there been marketing studies that found a direct correlation to balloons and car buying desire.

We turned into a different Hendrick dealer’s lot and tried to snake our way back as it looked all connected. It was not and we ended up way out back, close to the BMW service area. There were a couple of Minis back there that we looked at for a few minutes before going in the service counter and asking where the Mini dealership was located (it was still not apparent from where we were.) On the short walk over, I dragged Donna over to see a BMW Z8 that was in for service. Donna wanted to know what the big deal was and I said, “It’s like a hundred thousand dollar car.” She harrumphed and said, “It’s ugly.” In magazine photos I thought it looked real sharp, but in person I had to agree with her.

When we arrived the place was strewn with Minis of all variations and colors. We met out “Motoring Advisor” Dana and she set about lining up a couple of cars to drive. My only requests were to drive a base Cooper and an S, with one of them having a sunroof. First up was the base car with no sunroof. It had some dealer installed 16″ wheels instead of the standard 15s, too bad, I had hoped to try the base in stock form so I could gage ride/road feel and handling differences when I got in the S. Didn’t really matter as the MA rides with you and guides you on about a 10 mile loop. You get a half a mile of Interstate and then just city streets. There is one patch of a road with a couple of bends in it, but nothing to really gage the handling capabilities. Next was a drive in the supercharged Cooper S. The normal S tester and the one she wanted to take us in didn’t have a sunroof either. I reminded her that I wanted one with the sunroof, so off she went to find one that fit the bill. Found one but I think that she didn’t want to take us in it was that hadn’t really been fully prepped. It still had plastic on the seats and cardboard all over the inside. It didn’t matter to me because all I wanted out of this was to see if I felt the extra 50 horses were worth the $3K over the base. Out for the same 10 mile loop.

When we got back I had one more request, I wanted to see some cloth seats. The base had leather and the S had the leatherette. The fake stuff was a very nice quality, the feel and finish would fool a lot of people, but I think cloth would be better than the vinyl and leather at $1600 was too much for too little. And if I was buying a Mini I think the cloth would be the way I’d go. There was one she could show me, but Dana had to go back inside to get the key. After we stood around a bit idly chatting about colors, I thanked her for her time and asked for her card. I think we both knew that I wasn’t buying.

Here is why I’m not buying: Neither blue in person blow my skirt up, after that any color was a compromise and neither Donna or I could pick one we really liked. The inside was too plastic feeling, the door pulls felt really cheap, the dash when you touched it had the feel of the side of a Barbie pedal car. The rear view mirror on the inside reminded my of a child’s compact mirror. It was small and quirkily shaped and surrounded by a 1/2 wide plastic frame. On the first run we started out with the A/C on and the fan seemed really loud for the amount of air it was putting out. On the second run with the roof open and both windows down it was really noisy, even at city driving speeds. Almost as loud as the Miata with full top down and if you are going to have that much sound and fury, why not have the whole convertible experience. The sunroof from the inside didn’t seem as big as it does looking at it in the roof. I didn’t find the dead pedal until I was stationary back at the dealer looking at the cloth interior. I was not impressed, Donna on the other hand didn’t like it at all. A ten mile, 15 minute drive is not enough of an experience to really tell if you like the car, for that length of time a new Chevy Cavalier is probably a wonderful car. I guess if you were meant for the car that is all it would take, but having owned a Miata, I needed to be sold and wasn’t.

Here is some of the nice things. The base car, although 15 HP shy of my Miata and 200 lbs. heavier, felt just as peppy. Not being a big HP guy the S version wouldn’t have been worth it. Good thing too, as the hood scoop sort of ruined the cute front end we both thought. Damn thing is cute as a button. Plenty of leg room, I had the seat forward a couple of notches. The doors opened really wide. Did I mention it’s cute?

Donna said it best for both of us, the inside doesn’t live up to the fun promised by the outside.

Purchased Today: $14.00
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2641.54
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 283

This Means War

Brother agin brother! Father agin son! Families torn asunder in South Carolina! No, I’m not talking about the Civil War, but something almost as important to folks around here, USC plays Clemson in football tomorrow for statewide bragging rights for the next year.

The first winter after we moved to South Carolina I bought a new sweatshirt. I picked it up because it was a nice shade of maroon and had the words SOUTH CAROLINA in white block letters embroidered in an arc across the front. I didn’t realize until a couple years later that it symbolized the University of South Carolina because of its colors, etc.

Friday’s since September have been wear your school colors day at work. My college is Delgado Community College in New Orleans and they don’t sell school stuff online, so I was left out of the festivities. The only time I remotely played along is when I wore my red, white and blue rugby shirt and proudly proclaimed the USA was the school I supported. But today I broke out the maroon sweatshirt to wear to work just to see what would happen. Some good natured ribbing, but not much as I think most people already knew I really didn’t care one way or another. Secretly, deep down inside I am rooting for USC. For one how can anyone root for a school who’s prominent color is orange? And secondly, you gotta love a school that actually encourages people (even the girls) to shout, “Go Cocks!”

50 Year Old Cabinets

We are in the middle of a kitchen spruce-up. Fresh paint on the cabinet doors and new shiny silver hinges and knobs to match. We have a yellow tile counter top which was standard in that era and the cabinets were painted a pale yellow to get everything to blend in. This time we have decided to embrace the fifties in some spirit by painting the bottom cabinet doors in what could only be called glossy avocado. The top ones will be painted in another 50’s inspired color, glossy mustard. Tonight we got the bottom portion finished, somewhat. Although the hinges were the same style as what was removed, when reusing the pre-existing holes a few of the doors don’t close nicely anymore. And with the extra coats of paint a few of the drawers don’t slide as well as they used to…

New Car Fever

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

Cross Another One Off The List

After a week and a half ago’s lunch fiasco we will no longer be visiting the only Popeye’s in town, nor will we ever set foot inside the northside Burger King again. There are just too many choices of places to eat that we need to subject ourselves to sub-standard service or food. Tonight we have to cross another place of the Bogardus Dining Out List. What is usually a nice place to get chicken fingers, disappointed us big time. First clue was when we were standing in line to order the counter person started mutter about having the answer the phone and taking those orders. The wait for our meal was way out of proportion to the busyness of the joint. The fingers were barely warm enough to eat, the cornbread was stale and the mashed potatoes were pretty cold. I guess they must have put the plate in the freezer while waiting on the green beans. The beans were piping hot. We didn’t eat the cornbread and I did take the mashed potatoes back up and asked if it wasn’t too much trouble, could I get some hot mashed potatoes. The poured a little more gravy on them and nuked ’em. Unfortunately now they were as hot as the beans thereby making the warm chicken seem less so. So long Wife Saver, Zaxby’s here we come.

The Italian Job

Watched the 1969 version with Michael Caine tonight. For those of you who have seen a lot of 60’s movies, this thing would strike you as extremely odd. For those of us who have seen a bunch of movies (or possibly lived in) that time frame, this movie is still quite odd. I think it must be the strong British influence.

There can only be one reason for the remaking this flick – BMW. I know nothing has been said and maybe I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but they had to be behind it. The 2003 version is nothing more than a 111-minute commercial for the new MINI Cooper. Hey it worked I’ll be in Charleston this weekend driving one.