Post 3389 - Friday

Past 10pm.

We are off work until October 17th. We are heading into the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. Next Friday is my schedule day off. So, it seemed natural to take 3 vacation days to complete the week.

Monday, no later than Tuesday, we will go to the cottage. We have to get the place ready for Winter. Thursday night, because of some other commitments, we need to return to the city. Friday, we have some other things to do. And Saturday the 15th, there is the annual Nocturne event, where downtown Halifax and other parts of the city display art in unusual and interesting places and contexts. We don't go to it as much as we should. Went last year, focusing on the North end, and that was a mistake because there wasn't that much to look at. This year, we will stick with the downtown again. Far more interesting.

Anyway, that's what we'll be doing.

If you have seen my Facebook, you'll know that I am starting to look for a new car. I have a budget of about 25K to work with, likely not including whatever trade in I can get on my 2008 Grand Prix. Considering the amount of work the car requires, I do not anticipate getting much of a trade-in.

It's so funny. You can ask 10 people what kind of car you should buy, and you will get 12 answers, many of which contradict each other. Get a Ford. Stay the F away from Ford. KIA. Hyunda. Don't buy either KIA or Hyundai. Honda's are great. Honda's are good, but you can never get a deal on them, ever. Toyota's? Same thing as Honda's. One's head swims. Liquor, to be consumed in the safety of one's home, may be required to quell the headache.

In sifting through the many comments on my Facebook, I am seeing more of a trend to people like KIA and Hyundai products. Honda's and Toyota's, too, but the positive vibes for KIA and Hyundai were surprising. Not many years ago, I was told up and down that KIA's were crap, and Hyundai's were the butt of many jokes. I do not pay much attention to the trends and to things like Consumer's Report, but over the last 10-15 years, both of those makes have improved tremendously, and it is showing in people's enthusiasm.

A co-worker has had the same KIA car since 2007 and still loves it. Others have sung their many virtues.

So, maybe I will start my search in a KIA lot.

Maybe.

I just know that my last two cars have been GM products. The '05 Malibu caused me a great deal of grief. There was a problem with the signal lights. When it rained, they stopped working. There was a factory recall over that. Not long after I got it, the instrument cluster decided to short out, so half the instruments were no longer working. I couldn't tell how much gas I had, for example. Cost me hundreds of dollars to get it working. Things like the instrument cluster and the signal lights (except for the bulbs, of course) have no business breaking down on a car, ever. I was happy to trade in that car for the ...

2008 Grand Prix. I liked that car. I was with my dad getting the Malibu undercoated next door.  We wandered over to the dealership where a family friend was the sales manager. We looked at the cars. I noticed the Grand Prix. Richard threw us the keys and told us to go for a drive. When we got back he and I could chat.

I ended up buying the car that very day. That was a Friday, December 5, 2008.

Monday morning, December 8th, driving to work, we went through a green light, and Buddy went through the corresponding red light and t-boned us. I have written about that before here, but I still wish the car had been written off. But it wasn't. It was fixed at no cost to me, and that is the car I am going to get rid of, lord willing and the crick don't rise, before the end of October.

I don't want another GM product. Not the Grand Prix's fault. It has been a good car, over all, though expensive to maintain, and the car has reached the point of throwing good money after bad. But the memory of the '05 Malibu so tainted my perception of GM products that I don't want another one of them, probably ever.

So, let's at least consider a KIA or a Hyundai before I look at a Toyota or a Honda. Why the heck not?

Someone's dropping by Saturday morning to take that dining room set off our hands. Will have to get up comparatively early to give them a hand. Think I will turn in.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy