Cars

Coccinellidae

The Mini already has a name, Ladybug. First because of the coloring, but after the deal was done and we went to drive it off the lot there was a ladybug sitting on the driver’s outside rear view mirror. Tonight, as if to cement the name, when I went out to pull the Bob Richards sticker off the back and wash the windows better than Nissan of Augusta’s “detailer” did, there was another ladybug walking on the roof.

This car, for now, will be Donna’s daily driver as it replaces the departed Sonata. I am now slightly jealous about her getting the Mini, not because I like driving it better than the Miata, but because it has the lowest mileage of any vehicle in our fleet and I love a new car. But because I asked nice, she is going to let me take the mini to work tomorrow to show all my friends. I will have to back the Miata out of the garage for her to use tomorrow, she will risk driving it in, but just won’t back it out of the garage.

The post title, Coccinellidae, is the ladybug’s scientific family name and as it turns out it is not really even a true bug, it is a beetle, so Donna ended up getting a beetle anyway, just one from BMW not VW.

I spent lunch at work and another half hour at home creating the above avatar for the Mini like I’ve done for our past vehicles for use in online forums and as the avatar for Fuelly. To the right the Sonata is gone and the Mini has joined the Miata in the sidebar. Right now it shows zeroes for the Ladybug as we have yet to fill it up because they topped off the tank before giving us the keys. It will be the second fill up before data gets entered because I don’t know if the trip odo was reset when the dealer gassed it up.

Purple Whale Harpooned

by the Japanese whaling ship Nissan with a German spear made in in Great Britain…

Guess I won’t be submitting the What Car Should You Buy form after all.

We had our eyes on a Mini in Spartanburg and had planned on going up there on Saturday to test drive it. It is a 2012 Cooper Base in Spice Orange for eleven and a half thousand bucks. It has the dual panel sunroof, which really interested us, and had less than 40 thousand miles on it. The only thing that worried us was that it had been on their lot for over 2 years. Why hadn’t somebody bought it already? Then I searched for Minis for sale using different words, adding Augusta to the mix, and found one for sale at Nissan of Augusta (I’d link to the listing, but they already pulled it off the web), one-forth the distance away.

We were going right near there, to go to Cars & Coffee, so after looking around at the lines of Mustangs and stanced imports for a few minutes we drove 1/4 mile further down the road and test drove that Mini. It didn’t have the sun roof we liked and it was couple thousand more than the one in Spartanburg, but it was right there and it was basically brand new, as it only had 16 thousand miles on the odometer. We both liked it. It was smaller then the Sonata, a half a foot narrower and nearly 4 feet shorter, but it rode like the bigger car.

We left there and drove a couple more miles down the road to the VW dealer to test drive a new Beetle. Donna’s first car was a Beetle and we both sort of liked the looks of the new one, so we wanted to drive one of them to see if it could get on the short list of possible Sonata replacements. Short answer no. It was shorter than the Sonata, but almost as wide and Donna spent the whole short test drive scootched up in the seat trying to judge where the front of the car was.

After the Beetle disappointment, we came back to Aiken to go to the Chocolate Festival at St. Mary’s Church to eat lunch, shop for used books and eat several bucks worth of chocolate desserts. By that time we finished, it was too late to drive to Spartanburg to test drive that Mini before the dealer closed, so we went home.

At first we thought maybe we would wait until next Saturday to drive a hundred miles to see if we wanted the big sun roof and the orange color, but then thought, we’d wait, drive up there, not think the sunroof was worth it, hate the color, come back to Augusta and find that the Mini would have been sold on Friday. We stripped all our personal items from the Sonata, grabbed the title and went over to Augusta.

The Mini interior had changed slightly, here is a 2003 picture and here is a 2013 picture. Not really a radial change, so the big change must have been with us. We are still not sold on the big dinner plate sized speedometer in the center of the dash (there is a digital speedo in the bottom of the tach which is front and center), so maybe after a while it won’t bother us.

Jalopnik “What Car Should You Buy” Submission Form

Donna and I are thinking of replacing the Sonata. It is a comfortable ride, but it is too darn big. You would think that after 6-1/2 years we would have gotten used to it, but no. I am still occasionally liable to cut a right turn short hitting the curb and getting it correctly length-wise into a regular parking spot is a hit or miss proposition. Visibility out the back is awkward and it is even worse for Donna because she is shorter than I am. We both agree that on paper the perfect car for us would be a Mini, but we were non-pulsed the first time we tried one back in 2003.The car has changed some, we’ve changed some, maybe we need to try one again. And probably will this weekend.

If the Mini fails to light our fire once more, I’m not sure what we should try next, so I’m looking for suggestions. One possibility for suggestions is on a car website I read daily, Jalopnik. They have a feature called What Car Should You Buy? where their crack staff make car buying suggestions based on how you fill out a submission form. I have reproduced it below with how I would fill it out. If we are underwhelmed by the Mini again, I might actually send it in, even though it seems as if their recommendations are there more for their entertainment value than anything else.

Name: Brian & Donna

Email: xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.com

Would you be willing and able to provide a picture of yourself for the article? A picture of me, yes, but my wife feels that you are stealing a little bit of her soul anytime her picture is taken, so probably not her. Besides, someone has to press the shutter button.

Tell us about your situation We currently have a 2011 Hyundai Sonata that is just too darn big. The largest car we ever had before this was a 1983 Honda Prelude. We also own a 2002 Miata.

What are some attributes that you want from this car? It needs to be smaller than, but have the same ride comfort, as the Sonata.

Where do you live? Aiken, South Carolina

How old are you? Early 60s

What are your hobbies? Random road trips, bicycling, hiking & geocaching

How would you describe what you do? One retired and the second soon to follow

What are some cars that you like? Please explain why you like them. She likes beetles & he likes little 2 door coupes, probably left over warm fuzzy feelings for our first cars, a 71 beetle and a 73 Datsun B210.

Are there any deal-breakers? No Minis of any ilk, tried ’em, didn’t like ’em. Did I mention smaller than a Sonata?

Is there any other lifestyle information that would be helpful in determining the best vehicle for your needs? Although the weekly mileage will mostly be under a 100, we are prone to week long road trips of around 1500 miles. We checked “a little of both” in the type of driving category, but in reality it is more back roads driving. We live in a small town, nowhere near city sized and highways are for 18-wheelers.

What is your approximate price range?
Less than $5000
$5000 – $10,000
$10,000 – $15,000
$15,000 – $20,000
$20,000 – $25,000
$25,000 – $30,000
$30,000- $35,000
$35,000 – $40,000
$40,000- $50,000
$50,000- $60,000
$60,000- $70,000
$70,000- $80,000
Above $80,000

How long do you you plan on owning this vehicle?
1-3 years
3-5 years
5-7 years
7 years or more

Approximately how many miles a week do you drive?
Less than 100 miles
100-200 miles
200-300 miles
400- 500 miles
More than 500 miles

What type of driving do you do regularly?
Highway
City
A little bit of both

What body style? Check all that apply
Sedan
Coupe (2-door)
Convertible
Hatchback
Wagon
SUV
Crossover
Pick-up Truck
Minivan

On average how many passengers (including driver) will occupy this vehicle?
1-2
2-3
3-4
More than 5

Do have a preferred transmission type?
Automatic
Manual
Can’t drive a manual, but I’m willing to learn
No preference

Do you have a preferred drive type? Check all that apply
Front-wheel drive
Rear-wheel drive
All-wheel drive
4-wheel drive
No preference

Fiat 124 Spider

A coworker has had this Fiata for a few months now, but over this last weekend she did a little customization, this cool retro side stripe. They sell several versions of something like this for Miatas, but I think they only look really good on the first generation cars because of its flat sides, but no so much on my generation.

Believe it or not this is not a grayscale image. Her car is a dark gray, the stripe light gray, with the tires, wheels and pavement in various monochromatic shades…

Retro Car Design

I’m really kind of too lazy to actually pin down the real facts on the wild and woolly interwebs, so I’m just going to rely on my somewhat reliable memory and say the VW did it first with the New Beetle in 1998. They sold a bunch of them, so a trend was born. Car makers looked back 40-50 years and redesigned their old icons into something that looked like it had a linear progression of incremental design changes to get to the present.

1974-2014 VW Beetle

The Beetle really never changed much from its original design in its first 40 years, then it went away for a couple decades before the new one reappeared. The Mustang on the other hand went all over the place design-wise for its first 40 years, but when Ford redesigned it in the mid 2000’s they re-imagined it like it had stayed close to the original design over the years. The results, in my eyes, were perfect. I was not the only one either, sales jumped.

1968-2007 Ford Mustang

After the retro/new Mustang was a hit, the other two remaining muscle car rivals dot the treatment as well. Both the Dodge Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro nameplates were revived and they too became sales successes. Didn’t hurt that along with the modernization of the exteriors they now had roughly twice the horsepower of the earlier incarnations, but the drove and handled like a modern car should.

The Fiat 124 has followed the Beetle/Challenger/Camaro route in that after its original run from the 60’s to the 80’s it went the way of the Dodo, like pretty much all the other 2-door convertible sports cars. Well, this year the Fiat 124 spider was re-born and it is only fitting that the car that brought the 2-seat convertible sports car back to life in the 90’s, the Miata, became the basis for this new Italian roadster.

1966-2017 Fiat 124 Spider

I think the designers succeeded nicely in creating a car that looks as if it has continuously updated and modernized in increments over the past 40 years, especially considering they were locked into using the same uni-body underpinnings of the current brand new generation of the Miata.

Brian Sees A Fiata1

It has been a few months since we’ve been to Brueggers Bagels for breakfast. The main reason for this is no matter what we tried, those bagels we brought home never tasted as good as they did on the day we bought them. We froze them, we froze them in the store’s special freezer bags, we kept them in plain paper bags (both in the fridge and on the counter) and by Friday they tasted just like the “bagel” we could get at Dunkin Donuts.

Ever since Donna had declared the new Miata ugly, I have been waiting for the new Fiat 124 to arrive because it is basically a Miata in an Italian designed body hoping that she just might find it handsome. Of the two, I prefer the Miata, but the Fiat was very nice looking in pictures, so I kind of wanted to see one up close for my self as well. The 124 Spiders just started arriving at dealers in early July. Right now they are all automatics for whatever reason, but that was OK, I just wanted to look.

A couple of weeks ago some of the Fiats began showing up “close” to us like Charlotte and Atlanta which were way too far away to just pop over and take a peek. JTs Fiat in Lexington is the closest one to us in Aiken at 40 miles and they received their first 124 Spider, in black, last weekend. JTs was literally right next to the Brueggers, so when Donna suggested that maybe we should get a bagel for breakfast on Saturday, I readily agreed.

When I pulled into the bagel place I noticed that the building was still there, but there were zero cars in the lot. They had pulled up stakes and moved somewhere else. It had to have been extremely recent though as the dealer’s website still has that next door address on it and the map still shows that spot as the destination on their contact page. Donna asked, “Do you want to try and find the new place?” “I have no idea where to start looking,” I replied, “but we could head a little further east to get on I-20 to go home and maybe we’d stumble on it.”

A mile and a half later we passed a brand new car dealership on the left that had popped up in the last 3 months. It was a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealer and it said JTs on the building. Maybe I was imagining it, but I could have sworn I saw a Fiat 500 parked amongst the SUVs. Then the proverbial light bulb illuminated and I put Fiat owning Chrysler together and said, “I’m making a U-turn.” It was early enough still that the dealership was not open for business yet, but there were a few cars already lining up at the service department. I cruised past them and made my way over towards where I thought I saw the 500. They had some of the gates still closed, so we parked the Miata and started wandering through the huge side lot (I’m betting salesmen will have to drive you out to look at cars on golf carts.)

There, way in the back, were the Fiats, a few regular 500s, lots of insect looking 500x Trekkings and the lone black 124 Spider. It hadn’t been fully prepped yet, there was still plastic wrapping on the interior bits and it was dirty, but I liked the looks. It could definitely be my fall-back car. I asked Donna, what she thought, she said, “Not impressed.”

Thinking it had to do with that color and my plans for a black Miata, then spending more to wrap it a different color, I thought if I offered up a different color… “How about in red?” I asked. (Donna had once suggested the new Miata in red) There was just the one black Spider on the lot, so I pointed at a red 500 nearby, “Like that.” She glanced where I was pointing and said, “No way.” Feeling slightly frustrated by this whole process, I blurted out, “Now you are just making shit up to not let me buy a new car.” And maybe because I had a smile in my voice when I said it, it fortunately cracked her up with laughter.

When she stopped laughing, Donna asked me, “Well what do you want?” So I said, “A range from at the top of a black Miata wrapped in bright blue… she said, “No way.” before I could go any further… to a white Miata, to at the bottom, a Fiata in any color you’d find acceptable.” She laughed again and nothing further was discussed on the new car, the rest of the way home.

1. As long as I’m a Miata owner this car will always be referred to as a Fiata, but if I ever end up with one, I will try and make sure I call it by its proper name, 124 (Spider.)

Car Shopping

No, not me.

A woman from the Miata Club has a silver 1991 with 218,000 miles on it and it is no longer quiet (as she put it) and no longer trusts it to take long trips. She asked me and a couple of other long term Club members what her options might be. My response:

Anita,

You’ve certainly had a long run and maybe it is time to get something a little newer.

And while I like the looks of the new one, Donna does not, but neither one of us want to buy a new one and incur a $30k new car loan. The new model is supposed to be more back to the Miata’s roots, it still looks like a smaller sized person might be swallowed by the slightly higher sides and rear end.

Even if you liked the look of the 3rd generation (2006-2015), I’m sure you would get the sitting in a bath tub feel because even I did a little when we test drove one back when they first came out.

I have no idea what your criteria might be for a newer car, so I’m just guessing here by sort of imagining what I’d do if someone stole our car or it was totaled. Here we go…

Buy a 2nd generation car, I know, I know, I’m biased but hear me out. Most of the 1st gen cars like yours are getting a little long in the tooth, so unless you get lucky and find a low mileage one (under 80k miles) you might as well kick it up a notch. Skip the 1999 to 2000 ones, look for something from the 2001-2005 range because the seats are more comfortable, the center console is more usable and the headlights are a tremendous improvement. A quick search of Cars.com within 150 miles turns up 8 cars between $6,500 to 10,500. http://tinyurl.com/my7xm7h The bottom three in price are probably of the most interest to you, I don’t see you in red or yellow or a real dark color. The one you’d probably like best, the silver, is actually an automatic once you look at the pictures.

You know, now that I’ve actually shopped around a little, I think for $6,000 I would get a rebuilt motor put in, some new shocks and springs, a new top, maybe recover the seats with leather and buy some new floor mats.

Good luck,
Brian

Right after I sent that, I thought what if I went out 200 miles? I found nothing different for her, but if I was looking to replace The Emperor for some reason:

Never mind what I just said, I bumped the mileage to 200 from my house and found a car just like my current car for sale in Myrtle Beach.

http://tinyurl.com/q86wmf4

Even if the 41k miles is correct, $9,300 is still too much, I’d pay maybe 8,500…

Happy shopping,
Brian

Wait a minute, I really only checked Cars.com, there are a couple more resources I should try:

Damn it Anita, now see what you got me doing. đŸ˜‰

Here is a silver 2001 with 75k miles in Claxton for a paltry $5,300 from a private seller on Autotrader.com.

There were only a couple on ebay within 200 miles, but both are automatics.

I will not check Craigslist. I will not check Craigslist. I will not check Craigslist. OK, just a peek…

Oooh, a silver 2003 with 100k in Spartanburg for $5,500.

Alright, I’m finished – Brian