I Had No Car in Santa Monica

It wasn’t the best time to buy a car...

PRISCILLA’S MINI COOPER. THERE’S A REASON IT’S CALLED MINI

Last month I needed a car. My gray 2009 Audi A4 was totaled in an accident. I wasn’t hurt, the car was.  But that’s another story

Now I had no transportation. I rented a Nissan Kicks from Enterprise for 10 days and it cost me upwards of a thousand dollars. It was no Tesla.

It’s not the best time to buy a car. Used car prices are inflated beyond reason. My friend Patrick was able to sell his Tesla for $ 4,000 more than he paid for it. Three year old Subarus are listing for only $ 3,000 less than new ones. There just are not many cars around.

Priscilla and I went through the discussion of having just one car for our small family of two. Maybe that would have worked, had her car not been a tiny two door Mini Cooper. Priscilla is 5 foot 1 inch. After a few marital arguments – “I need the car to drive the camera store” “Take an Uber” “I need to take the dog to the vet” “I have a meeting in Culver City” “I want to drive up to Malibu.”

I hadn’t bought a new car in some 40 years, always used ones.

 A green VW Squareback. A white Karman Ghia convertible,

MY 1966 VW SQUAREBACK

A  blue Volvo wagon. A red Opel Kadett.

THE BLUE VOLVO ENROUTE TO ASPEN WITH SUNNY THE LAB

A white Subaru Outback, all satisfactory, though the service and maintenance costs blunted the lower prices.

The SUBARU OUTBACK AT MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN

And my last used Audi soon developed a major cylinder problem, burning a quart of oil for every tank of gas. Just as the short term “certified” warranty expired.

So, the attraction of a full three year warranty on a new car seemed attractive. And as a hedge against anticipated radical development in electric cars, a short lease. 

And there was the question of what car. At my age, this might be the last car I have and so, do I want to fulfill whatever fantasy image I have ? A sportscar convertible, (Ever since my San Francisco days, around the corner from an Alfa shop, I always wanted a 1966 Alfa Romero Spider Veloce, impractical as they always  were). Or a car designed for my ambitions of driving the back country dirt roads of Utah. (Subaru had just come out with their “Wilderness” versions of the Outback). 

In the end, reality prevailed and I narrowed the choices to a middle of the road SUV: A Subaru Outback, or Forester..or a Toypta RAV4. No Porsche Cayenne.

PRISCILLA, A MUSTANG, BICYCLES, AND MY CESSNA - LONG AGO

The first confrontation when shopping was the omnipresent add on prices – MSRP - PLUS various odds and ends that no one really wanted: “Appearance Packages” “delivery charge” “All Weather floor mats” at $ 230. Dealers weren’t willing to exclude these, “We don’t have enough cars to sell so we have to make it up somehow.”

Then my friend Garrett, who does drive an Alfa Romeo, mentioned that his good friend is high up at the Mazda Dealership and would get me a good price. Never thought much about a Mazda – they were the cars that in the seventies experimented with rotary engines. With little success.

After extensive online research – all very positive, I borrowed my wife’s Mini and drove to the Van Nuys Mazda Store for a test. It was very comfortable, lumbar support in the driver’s seat. Quiet in the cacophony of Valley traffic. Many safety devices to correct for my declining observational and concentration skills. Blind spot monitors, anti-creep device, automatic breaking, heads up information superimposed in the windshield.

My other test drive was in the aforementioned Subaru Forester Wilderness.  Organic looking green paint, protective black plastic in vulnerable places, high ground clearance, and front and rear skid plates. All the right image and capacity for those probably never-to-be-taken back road cross country excursions. But not so comfortable. Not so quiet. 

Also… Also, I was dealing with a good friend of a friend – somewhat nullifying my inherent distrust of the random car salesman. Hard for me to overcome. It’s easy to want a new car, but the unpleasant process of car shopping is horrible. The clarity of exactly what you’re buying and how much you’re paying is usually cryptic until the machine is in your driveway.

So, looking reality in the eye and tossing my image and probably unrealistic ambitions to the wind. I chose urban comfort.  There is now a sensible White Mazda CX 5 in my driveway

BILLY THE DOG IN THE NEW MAZDA