tcepsa | Last Monday (carventures) [Friends]

Monday morning. Ugh. Not fun. I'm freezing, even curled up next to

fortryll and under a heavy duvet. My nose is stuffed up and my head is sending me messages that sound like "If you even think about moving in some way that I don't like, I'll give you a throbbing headache for the rest of the day." I decide that dealing with the stress of the office is probably not a smart plan, and since I don't have anything that's of really pressing importance that I have to be at the office to take care of, I call to see whether it is okay for me to work from home. My supervisor gives me the OK, because he is awesome and understanding and a reasonable human being (I will point out at this juncture that my supervisor is different than the person that I refer to as my boss, just in case any of you were getting conflicting messages).

I proceed to do what anyone working from home because their upper respiratory system is threatening them with intense agony would do: I take my car into the shop. I bring my cell phone with me in case something urgent comes up at work, fully prepared to take a taxi if I have to (so I don't feel like I'm being completely irresponsible) and settle in to see what's making those funny noises from the last post. The guy examines it a bit, calls me back, shows me what he's looking at and explains what he's going to do. I need to hang out at the shop more often when I take my car in; it's really cool when they explain to you what's up, especially the way this guy did. Cars are really cool, and I'm incredibly tempted at this point to see whether I could make it as a mechanic. (More on my love for machinery in a later post, perhaps.) Anyway, for those of you who know and are interested in such things, he wasn't able to find anything wrong just by looking at it, but the wheel would occasionally bind up as he tried to turn it, and then clank from somewhere inside the transmission if he kept turning it. He offered to take apart the transaxle to the left front wheel and check it out, both where it interfaced with the wheel and the transmission, and see whether he could find anything wrong with it that would cause those noises. I gave him the go-ahead and settled back down out in the waiting area to, well, wait.

About half an hour later he called me back to show me what he'd done. I got to see what it looked like and everything, it was really sweet. Unfortunately, everything seemed to be in place and in good condition from what I could tell; no pitted bearings, no missing roller bearings, no chipped splines. The mechanic said that he wasn't able to find anything wrong with it; even the transmission fluid seemed fine when it drained out after he took out the transaxle. So he said he'd put it back together again for me and send me on my way, which to me seemed perfectly reasonable. Final diagnosis: Something is up with the transmission.

So he did, and I got on my way (though apparently there was a little mishap while he was putting it back together, resulting in me being there about an hour longer than it would have taken otherwise, but he got it straightened out and replaced) with no charge, which gives those guys a gold star in my book and recognition, for what it's worth, in my LJ:

The Midas on Duke Street will take good care of you and your car.

So I get on my way again and notice, as I'm driving back to

fortryll's place, that it's still making funny noises. It's at this point that I decide it really is time for a new car. The thought had crossed my mind earlier a few times (I admit it, I had Prius envy) and so I had been considering it for awhile and I decided that now it's time to do it. There were two major factors in that decision. The first was that a newer car would require me to send it to the shop less often. The second is that I did the math. I took the amount of money that I paid for it and added the amount that I had put into major maintenance on it, and I divided by the number of months that I had had it. That "monthly payment" ended up being somewhere between $325 and $375, and I decided that if I was going to be putting that kind of money into a car, I wanted something nicer than my '93 Geo Prizm.

I call

fortryll up at work and let her know what had happened and what was going on and what my decision was. She, being the incredibly supportive person that she was, gives me some advice on how and where to start looking, and I begin scouring the web. My search is made easier by the fact that I've pretty much already determined that I want a used Prius. All I have to do is find a place selling one that I like at a price that I like. Between working on bits of code, I scour the web through the afternoon and narrow it down to a few choices. I call the first one (up in Rockville) because it's got the best price and discover it's in the shop for some body work (no wonder the price was so good) and already had two other people call about it--but would I like to consider one of their newer models? They have very flexible financing plans and could make it worth my while to come up for a visit...

Right. If I want to pay that much for a car, I'm not going to sit in rush hour traffic to drive to Rockville so I can do so. By this time it is getting late and

fortryll is on her way home to pick me up so we can go take a look. I get the addresses of the remaining two places and go down to meet her. We head out to Ourisman Toyota in Fairfax, and step out onto the brightly lit parking lot.

fortryll has done this before, knows how it works, and I follow her lead, figuring that if anything goes too screwy I can always just say "Thanks but no thanks, have a nice night" and walk away. She knows her stuff; after maybe a minute of perusing cars we are approached by Karim, a friendly-looking salesman. I explain to him what I am looking for, and he takes me straight to the used Prius that I had seen on the web and launches into a description of their extended warranty as I look it over. It's a very nice looking car, a beautiful shade of blue (cerulean, I think) and nothing major in the way of dents or scratches. I like it already.

He opens it up and I sit down inside. The windshield and front of the car are sloped downwards at an angle that I'm not used to, and it makes me feel like the car is a lot longer than it really is... but that's something I could get used to, and it's really the other way around (thinking that the car is shorter than it really is) that would be a problem. It's very comfortable, and I'm liking it more and more. He gives me an overview of the interface, and how you can see where the power is coming from and which direction it is going (from the engine to the wheels, from the battery to the wheels, from the wheels to the battery, etc.) He gets my driver's license and hands me the key and the three of us go for a little ride.

It's definitely weird. Not like I'm used to at all--it feels bigger than it is in all directions, not just forward. But again, that's much better than the other way around ;) It's mostly illusion, because the passenger area feels a lot bigger in this one than it does in mine... and if the inside of the car is bigger, the outside must be too... right? Anyway, the drive goes well, though I fail a good half of my navigation rolls (missed the turn onto Nutley St. and drove right by the dealership on the way back, for example) I'm enjoying the car itself. I blame the navigation problems on the fact that I'm focusing on not crashing into things in this car that feels much bigger than what I am used to, and getting used to the dash (completely different than mine. For one thing, I don't have an LCD touch screen displaying my fuel consumption stats...)

We get back to the dealership and I'm seriously thinking that it would be good to get this vehicle, but still a little nervous just because that's the way I get when contemplating a purchase of that magnitude. The dealer heads inside to take care of some things, and

fortryll mentions that she thinks it is a really good deal and I probably won't find anything better in this area. That's enough to solidify my resolve, and we head in to complete the purchase.

It's actually relatively painless (though slightly embarrassing at one point when I spill some tea all over Kazim's desk *blush*). We get the paperwork done and set up a loan and get me on my way.

The bottom line: I'm now the proud owner of a beautiful blue 2002 Toyota Prius ^_^

And it rocks.