This post is a little late, as we actually got the car in mid December. We were facing yet another repair with L’s Miata—after already having put in nearly $1,000 to repair a failed heater coil. That failure had created a leak in the coolant and put the entire contents of the coolant system into the floor of the car. Coolant is toxic and even more so when run through a heater, or vaporized. After that repair, one really cold morning—yes they do happen in Arizona—the knobs on the heater/cooler settings were no longer working. The knob was turned to maximum cold and he couldn't adjust it. D'oh!
I told L, maybe he should consider a new car. So, he started doing some research and suggested a few options—used options. I said, "no, I mean a new car, as in never before owned, brand new shiny off the lot." "Oh…" He spent the next week researching car's fuel mileage, costs, availability and reliability. We then spent a full Saturday looking at a number of different cars—Hyundai's, Toyotas and then Fords. He really liked the Focus, but did they have in in standard, not automatic? Well, sure, but they also had a fully equipped automatic—heated seats, leather interior, full set-up—that just happened to be marked down for end-of-year to the same price as a base-line standard. He test-drove that, fell in love with it and now we own it.
This is the first ever new car we have ever owned. Seriously. All other cars have been used, some heavily, some lightly, but all have been past warranty and previously owned.
It's pretty exciting and I'm especially relieved that we were able to get payments within our acceptable price range and term length. It's also nice knowing that he won't get stranded on the side of the road—which has happened at least 1/2 a dozen times in the past year from the Miata. The crazy thing is, the cheap, cheap, cheap Miata was actually costing us nearly $100 more per month than a brand new car when I amortized the repairs over the length of time we owned the car. I've yet to drive the car though—it really is L's, not mine—and I'm sure over the course of us owning it, I'll probably put on less than 1,000 miles.
