Ahh, nothing like kickin’ tires on a used car lot on a sunny, summer day!
I’ve been carless for over a year, relying on my own two feet and good shoes, my two-wheeled “bici“, subways and trains. I’ve planned my comings and goings based on how far I could walk and where the nearest Metro stop was. For the most part, I liked that. Goods and services were central. To get away from it all, I’d hop on my bike, engage the extensive Trenitalia rail system, or accept invitations from friends to ride with them in their travels.
Fast forward to Seattle, 14 months later. I’m back in the land-of-sprawl. My dear Dad loaned me his mini-van so I can get around and get settled. In the first week, I hit Southcenter twice, plus Costco and Ikea, cathedrals of consumerism, not accessible on foot.
Considering how spread out everything is here, and how far away family members are, I need to find a car. Since I was moving away for a year, with the possibility of extending that time even longer, I sold my Honda CR-V before I left for Italy. Now in the market for wheels, after having been in Europe where every car could park-on-a-dime, I’m torn about what to buy. How do I weigh its cost, its size, its fuel efficiency and “environmental impact”?
So I figure this may be an interim car. Something inexpensive yet sound enough to get me around the state safely. Clean enough to appease my designer’s eye. AND it must be able to carry a bike in it or on it… a bike that I do not yet own, on a rack that I have not yet selected.
Enter CraigsList and the questionable world of used cars. Two Nissan Muranos caught my eye. I sent e-mail inquiries and BOTH said the car was out of state (in Miami and Atlanta), that the car had been owned by a husband or son that had served and died in Iraq and that they couldn’t bear to look at the cars any longer and wanted a fast deal. “Please wire the money through E-bay and we’ll have the car shipped to you.” Yeah right. Scam alert!
Today, I looked at a couple of Volvo wagons. One had looked great in the pictures, but the images didn’t reveal the myriad little tears, breaks, cracks and such that I found upon inspection. The other looked good, but was at the upper range of what I want to spend right now. I kicked a few other tires on the lot, while some guy walked into the “showroom” and insisted on test driving the Cadillac “boat” that had been lodged there and required battery-jumping and careful maneuvering down a skinny, rounded ramp just to access the road. How serious was he really about that Caddy? Right. Scam alert! He was likely just messin’ with ’em.
Further tire-kickin’ is one of my tasks in the midst of my settling in.