Scott's Car is Dead; Long Live Scott's Car
by Scott Hardie on September 2, 2006
Is it a reflection of our road-rage culture that a company named Dodge manufactures cars with violent names like Ram, Magnum, Caliber, and Viper? I pondered this at the dealership yesterday during the eternal wait between brief flurries of document-signing so I could buy my first car. It took some doing to get the sunroof and other features I wanted, but I'm now the happy (and relieved) owner of a 2007 Dodge Caliber SXT.
On the down side, I'm a weak negotiator and got taken to the cleaners on the price, then again on the financing, which had a lot to do with having no credit history whatsoever. On the upside, I love the Caliber already. It's attractive, it gets a debatable 30mpg, I like the features (there's a friggin' refrigerator in the glove box), I'm proud to buy American, and most importantly, it's brand-spankin' new with a six-year bumper-to-bumper warranty, so all of my maintenance problems with the last car are a thing of the past.
The last car was a 1996 Mercury Cougar XR7, Bostonian edition, bought brand-new by my father six months before his death; I inherited it with a thousand miles on the odometer. Anyone who's hung out with me in the last ten years has ridden in it at some point, and it earned nicknames ("the Mighty Mighty Boss-tonian", "the Time-Warp Car", "the Old Person Car") that I'll remember fondly. But it was one maintenance headache after another, with a check-engine light that stayed on for seven years for various reasons and certain features that never worked from day one. I don't like stepping down from a luxury car to a budget model, but I'll enjoy the newness and good working condition of the Caliber while they last.
Four Replies to Scott's Car is Dead; Long Live Scott's Car
Jackie Mason | September 6, 2006
[hidden by author request]
Scott Hardie | September 7, 2006
Thank you both for saying so. I'm still quite pleased with it.
Jackie Mason | September 16, 2006
[hidden by author request]
Logical Operator
The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »
Bombed Back to the Jurassic Age
Judging from what happened to my car the other day, not only is there a species of pterodactyl still alive in Sarasota, but it's suffering from an outbreak of dysentery. Go »Mars Needs Kitties
Thanks to Lori for sending me this: That gets me thinking: Do you think if people hadn't had the idea for crop circles until a decade later that the fad would have even happened? In this decade we have the tools on personal computers to fake images like this with photo-perfect results, and hoaxers could just distribute photos with the click of a mouse. Photos have been doctored for decades, of course, but now your grandma can do it, you know? Go »Gingerbread Office
I don't often join in Kelly's craft projects, and it's even rarer for her to join in one of mine. But that's what happened last week when my company held a gingerbread house contest, and Kelly pitched in to help the team that I signed up for. We decided to make a "north pole branch" of our Sarasota office. Go »My Dinner with Amy
Nice to meet you, old friend. Go »R.I.P. Pat
Kelly's mother passed away last week. The event had been anticipated for decades: Pat was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a child, suffered kidney failure in 1995 and survived on her brother's donated kidney, and had five strokes and five heart attacks and countless operations, including emergency brain surgery in 2007 that changed her personality. She obviously possessed quite an inner resiliency even if she seemed petite and frail on the outside, but it was inevitable that she would someday lose the fight with her own body. Go »
Anna Gregoline | September 5, 2006
Ah yes, I remember your "old person car!"
Congrats, it's always thrilling to get a new vehicle!