This past Monday I had car trouble. My old-ish car with 180k miles on it nearly stalled in the middle of an intersection. By the afternoon the problem had been fixed (for free because it was related to a recent repair) but in the process of checking things out, another problem was discovered. The shop told me it would be another grand and another day with it in the shop. The issue wasn’t something that would prevent the car from running but I was advised to get it fixed sooner rather than later. I thanked them for fixing it and said I’d let them know about the other repair. Parked in the driveway at the house, I filled a plastic grocery bag with pens and sunglasses and other odds and ends from the glove box, trunk, and center storage console. I reached under the seats where I found a few more pens… I have no idea where all of these pens came from. There must have been twenty of them. I took everything out that I could find, piled it all on the table, and spent the afternoon online researching and shopping for a new car. The stalling and the new repair combined was the final straw in a strained relationship. I had lost trust.
I have never gotten the car that I wanted… by which I mean to say that, like most people, price, not unbridled desire, has always been the determining factor on make, model, and features. The very first new car that I “bought” was a lease on a white, base-model Toyota Corolla (and no, that is not the answer to any of my security questions). It didn’t have any features. It had manual locks and roll down windows. It didn’t even have a trunk light or a clock. This was the late 90s – those features were common in many cars but cost extra (like floor mats). I was just out of college working the early morning stock shift at a retail store and needed to keep my monthly payments low. I think I paid $150 a month for that car. I drove it for almost the duration of the lease, but then took a job with a long commute that would push me over my mile limit. I traded in and traded up. The next car I owned was a Nissan Altima. I really wanted to get the Maxima, but again… price. Compared to the Corolla, this was fancy. It still didn’t have a ton of bells and whistles, but it was a step up. It served me well and lasted for about 150k miles before dying on me in 2009. That’s when I bought my current car, another Corolla, another pretty basic model. By this time, cars had features like rear cameras, GPS, and heated seats (mine did not, but it had a clock and I could plug my phone in). Again, I focused on keeping my payments low. Again, I drove it till it died (or was dying). Three cars in the twenty-some years since college.
I’m not sure I have a heart’s desire type of car and even if I did, I certainly couldn’t afford it (I like the look of the Maserati and some other fancy cars). For me, a car is a practical thing. Most new cars will drive equally well, have comparable features, and will be reasonably reliable for a few years. When I shop, I don’t want to haggle or spend a lot of time comparison shopping… I don’t even need to test drive it. I’ve driven enough rental cars and they’ve all been fine. I’ve also been driving a car with a broken seal around the door, a broken defogger, lots of loose parts that make a lot of noise, cloudy headlights, etc. etc. etc. I’m not picky. Anything and everything will be a step up. I want quality and reliability – I’ll adjust to everything else. As I did my online research, I was surprised to see that Mazda had crept into the top ratings, while Corolla had fallen a bit. I read some things and settled on a few different models (Hyundai Elantra, Mazda 3, Honda Civic, or another Corolla).
I emptied the car out having made up my mind that it was time to get something new. Despite what the car commercials try to sell (the preciousness of the memories we’ll make in our vehicles), I didn’t feel much sadness about getting rid of the old car. There weren’t many sepia-toned images flashing in my mind’s eye. In fact, as part of the clean out, I came across an old Playbill from a play in Philly, and the memory that was sparked was being attacked by a group of kids the night of that play. My daughter and I were in the car, they swarmed, punched and kicked the car, dented a door – it was terrifying (the memory became the subject of a poem in progress). I also remembered a few years later getting hit by a drunk driver on the highway in a hit and run. It damaged the driver’s side of my car and knocked the bumper loose. After being fixed (though not well), that bumper came loose on a different highway in North Carolina. I saw it flapping in the wind at 70 mph in my side view mirror. I had to pull into to some store parking lot and zip-tie the bumper back on to the car. My car has taken me a lot of places, but the memories associated with it (the ones that really stand out) aren’t the best. Sorry old car, I’m a middle-aged man and this just isn’t working anymore – I’m trading you in for a younger model.
I knew in my search, I’d still be constrained by price. What I wasn’t expecting to be such a determining factor this time around was availability. I checked online at about six or seven dealerships and most places didn’t have new cars in stock. The first dealership I visited, Hyundai and Mazda, said it would be at least a month, maybe two, before anything comes in… and those cars are usually spoken for with down payments a few weeks in advance. They’d be happy to take some money from me now and notify me of availability. The chip and production shortages, coupled with the transportation bottlenecks, have drained inventory and made the new and used car markets crazy. Car prices are at their peak and consumers have little leverage. This seems about right for when I need to make a major new purchase.
I needed to get a car and I wasn’t in the position to say – “you know, I’m just going to go check out your competitor” because they know their competitor doesn’t have anything either. No, this time around, it wouldn’t be price or features or feel (much less desire) that would determine my purchase – whoever had a car to sell me, now, was going to get my business. I asked them to keep me posted but didn’t put any money down.
A little down the road, I stopped in at a Honda dealership. They had two new cars on the lot and were having the same supply issues. They said it’s often a month or two before something frees up – there’s a backlog of orders and they only get two or three new cars a week. The one car was spoken for a few days earlier, but the financing fell through. This is where not being terribly picky comes in handy. I sat in a Civic base/sport model. It was fine. It didn’t seem as nice or stylish as the Mazda, didn’t have as powerful an engine, and was maybe a little more money, but I knew what car I’d be buying – the one that was available.
My new car drives well. It’s smoother, quieter, and the radio syncs up with my playlists. It has more features than I’ll probably use: fancy headlights that automatically turn the high beams on and off based on light conditions and oncoming traffic, sensors that will let me know if I’m driving erratically or drifting, and a rear view camera that I’ll ignore because I still look over my shoulder when I’m backing up. I’ll use the remote start to warm it up, and I’ll be glad to have a defogger/defroster that works.
When my colleagues asked if I was excited about getting a new car, I kinda just shrugged. I can be an Eeyore like that. As he talked the car up to me and what a beauty it was, I think the salesman, John, was a little disappointed in my lack of enthusiasm. The truth is, I had little say in the matter. Buying a car felt like buying any other necessity (contact lenses, underwear, toothpaste) except it costs a whole lot more. I need a car to get to work for the job that I need so I can pay for the car (thanks Thoreau for planting that seed many years ago). Part of what I see in my driveway is five years of car payments after finally getting debt free. The truth is, I value experiences so much more than I value things. I get more excited over trips and concerts than I do a new car… and with the new payments, I will almost certainly be more frugal on those other expenses. But at least I’ll be a bit warmer and safer and can start the car from inside the house on a cold and snowy day.