Now, due to all of the weird car business that’s been going on since mid-2008, I’ve been thrust right into the process of car hunting. It took a hell of a lot of soul searching and multiple pep talks from friends and family to get to the point where I had the guts to be able to spend the money to buy a new car. The decision to buy a new car itself instead of a used vehicle was a tough one. For the longest time the thought of going new scared me because I was scared of debt. It wasn’t until I worked out the numbers multiple times that I finally settled on going with a new car. I mean, I’ve had two cars in the past–both used. Both have had issues. Fresh in my mind, of course, has been the supposed spiritual possession of my Sunfire.

So, in my mind I had two requirements in my mind: foreign and reliable. I’ve had an Oldsmobile and a Pontiac. Both were cool when they were working. Just that when they weren’t they were just a lot of trouble. I’m not against domestic cars, but I just thought I’d give a foreign car a go. As for reliability, well, I know that new vehicles aren’t prone to breaking down so quickly, but I wanted something with a proven track record. Well, given these two characteristics, my mind wandered to one car: Toyota Corolla. Other options I considered were the Honda Civic and the Mazda 3, though I admit tossing the Honda option out kind of quickly because our family has more experience with Toyota and Mazda. I leaned more toward the Toyota plainly because mom currently drives a Mazda 3.

My mom had a string of Corollas in the past. They all treated her well. As a commuter vehicle, she had no complaints about them. That’s pretty much what many people are saying on the Internet, isn’t it? Sites though were also saying that there wasn’t anything terribly inspiring about driving one around. Eh…well, it’s not like I’m going to be racing with my vehicle, right? I needed something to get from point A to point B, but I also didn’t want it to look too plain. I guess, when I spotted the Corolla with the sport trim, I decided that that was the best balance of all the things I wanted. Sure, the car isn’t truly sporty when it comes to power, but in terms look it’s pretty cool. I played around with various tools on the Toyota site to build and price a vehicle. I had a good idea of what I was gunning for. I didn’t have any intentions of going too far forward with it though. These were all just plans. As is often the case, it took a shove forward from family to actually make me go forward with the purchase.

I told my parents about my plans and they told me to go ahead with it. They reminded me of the snowstorm incident as a good reason to go ahead. Well, yeah, of course that’s a good reason. Putting everyone’s safety in jeopardy was the trigger. I guess my family just had more confidence in my financial situation than I did. Anyway, on Saturday, I was urged to header to the dealer; it really became a family event. On my insistence though, they sat behind as mere observers. I was freaking out. I just couldn’t believe how everything was unfolding so quickly. Within an hour or two, the deal was close to be closed. The one big issue that was what colour I wanted the car to be.

My mind settled on one of three choices: a metallic dark grey, a bright metallic blue, and a deep metallic red. The weather was kind of dull, so the samples they had out in the open weren’t really making much of an impression on me. I decided that the bright blue was way too flashy for someone like me. After a lot of wavering I finally decided on the dark red because I associated that with my personality type.

(Just as an aside, the Nintendo DS colour I picked was crimson red. The curtains in my room are dark red, as are my current sheets.)

Funny, it wasn’t until the salesman made this remark that I realized how flashy my choice was: “you picked a sports-like car, so you thought you might as well go with red, eh?” Uhh…maybe? Actually, no, that didn’t register at all; I just liked red. If it was a flat red like that on the Matrix, I probably wouldn’t have gone that route. However, the Corolla is a darker metallic shade. That was the clincher.

Anyway, I got a call a few days ago indicating that may car would be ready for pick up today, Friday. I just needed to get a couple of things in order. Unfortunately, due to the holidays I had to put off a lot of it until today. I was playing phone tag with multiple people today just to get my papers in order. Luckily I had the day off.

Wow. So, as I drove my Sunfire to the dealer, I started to feel a bit lonely. I was apologizing out loud to the Sunfire. I got good use out of the car for the three years I had it. It’s too bad that it all had to end that way. As soon as I got to the dealer though, the loneliness was overridden by plain excitement. It didn’t kick in up until I actually saw the car. Previous to that, the idea of the car was just some nebulous thought–I guess I just needed to see something tangible for me to have that light bulb moment: I just bought myself a new car! As I was signing papers, I’m sure I had this wide grin on my face. I can only imagine that the woman I was dealing with was used to seeing customers that giddy. Within an hour, I had my keys and I was heading out. While I was in the dealership though, a heavy dumping of snow occurred. When I wanted to head out, I had to run back in and borrow a snow brush just so that I could see. Hah. My first drive was through a flurry. Crazy!

Anyway, that’s all I have for now. I’m going to spend some time reading the manual and getting acquainted. The picture below is of the car in our garage. With the flash on, the red looks kind of flat, but it’s a bit more metallic than it seems. I’m going to sleep well tonight.