Last Friday our primary commuter car, George the Stanza, succumbed to preexisting illness on our way to work. He is repaired now with a brand new distributor and doing fine but at 160K he’ll never be that spry 84K car that he was when we bought him. So after a grueling weekend of shopping and banking, tonight we brought Baxter home.
Liz has been doing more driving for work out in the boonies of Texas so reliable transportation has become more important. We were tired of renting a car any time we went on a long trip. Furthermore Baxter gets 34 MPG which is 10 MPG better than George. Baxter has dual airbags whereas George has none.
If it sounds like I’m trying to justify purchasing a new car (that’s right, new new), I am. We don’t deserve a new car and it is sort of difficult to enjoy it as I resent needing a car at all but the fact that Baxter is iPod compatible really helps.
I know some of you may think that the Scion xB is an ugly car but you are wrong.
J. E.–
Sorry to hear that George laid down on you, and you had to put him to sleep. Seems like you’re more than suited to Baxter, however. I hope he’s working out for you. Great photo of you and Liz…
I too bought a brand new car, the Honda Accord, and so I understand. I have to say, now that I’ve had the Honda for seven years, I wish I would have bought it a year used or so. It created some significant financial hardship for me during graduate school years and all. Still, the car is running well. In fact, this weekend, we’ll bring it over the 100,000 mile mark.
I think our next car purchase, whenever that will be, will be a hybrid vehicle of some kind–a Toyota Prius or Honda Civic Hybrid. But that won’t be for some time. I need the Honda to keep motoring…
–Shotts