Roblog

On Monday morning, as I backed it out of our garage, I noticed the brakes not working correctly. They would only work if I pushed them all the way to the floor. After verifying that I could control the car safely (lots of downshifting in case the brakes decided to completely quit working), I got it to limp to the Saturn dealer, which is about 2 miles away from our house. I dropped it off there and walked to the bus stop.

When they called me at work with the estimate, Donna and I had already agreed on the maximum amount we were willing to spend to fix this older car. It would cost over $2000 to get it working again, which was above our pre-determined limit.

What had happened was that the battery had been leaking battery acid. It was starting to eat through the positive battery cable and the brake line, among other things. This was in addition to general wear on the brakes, a cracked motor mount, and a few other items. Now I'm glad the car didn't blow up while I was driving it!

So now, the car is sitting in the Saturn parking lot. We've cleaned it out so that nothing we want to keep is in there any longer. Sometime next week, a wrecker will come by and take it away (the dealership didn't want it). Perhaps we can get a few hundred dollars for its parts.

I'm now suddenly in the car market. Since I was at the Saturn dealer anyway, we went ahead and test drove the 2006 Saturn Ion. It's a nice car and the price is good - about $16,000 for everything (four-door sedan, manual transmission, AC, no power windows, tax, title, and license), and the financing would be 3.9% or less. We also test drove the 2006 Honda Civic. I like the Civic a little better (the style is nice, and it gets slightly better mileage), but the price is quite a bit more, $18,775 (pre-haggling), and the financing is not nearly as attractive (6.9% and up). We'll probably test drive the Hyundai Accent before the weekend is over, too.

One thing people have remarked repeatedly to us is that this type of car is in short supply because demand has increased. With gasoline prices spiking this year to above $3/gallon, and looking to stay well above $2/gallon from now on, the small, fuel-efficient cars are in demand. The Honda dealer says the'd not be able to find a car that met our specifications in stock, so a three-week delivery date would be as good as they could do. Saturn said they had some available, but that demand is higher and stocks can decrease quickly.

Meanwhile, we're seeing how much of a down payment we can afford. It will be nice having a new car (with air conditioning!), but it's hard for me to get too excited when we'll be back to making car payments again.