The art of car shopping
I’m currently embarking on a journey I’ve never been on before. I’m looking for a new vehicle.
I’ll give you a little history on my driving experience up until now. As a 16-yearold high school kid, my aunt and uncle allowed me to buy their 2002 Saturn. They sold it to me for $1,500 which my parents graciously paid for as my first vehicle.
The car was a stick shift and didn’t have all the bells and whistles that cars today have with fancy screens or even power windows. It did however, get me everywhere I needed to be and on a budget, which was very important.
Next, my grandparents gave me their 2006 Hyundai Sonata. A car I still have to this day. I’m now approaching 200,000 miles on that car and the signs of the end are here. With every trip I take from my home in Marshfield down Hwy. 13 to work in Abbotsford, I feel the car deteriorating. I have sustained hearing loss because I’ve turned up the radio while driving to block out the sudden creaks and squeaks the car’s suspension makes. The stereo I installed when I first got it still works but doesn’t quite stay in place. Maybe that is due to the rough road that I travel with it every day.
It has served me well and I probably haven’t been the best owner but I knew I’d be getting a new vehicle on the horizon.
Recently, I’ve been looking at newer vehicles pretty religiously. The beauty of car shopping is that there are so many manufacturers out there with extensive lines of vehicles. So surely I’d be able to find one that would suit my needs, right?
Well, it’s to be determined at this point but so far it seems that price will be the biggest factor in the process. Newer vehicles can go for $30,000, $60,000 or even upwards of $100,000 if you want to be fancy enough. As a person who has never spent more than $1,500 on a vehicle, it’s going to be hard to shell out money for a newer one.
Kaitlyn and I have mutually agreed that our next vehicle should be a SUV. I tell her she can pick it out because I’ll more than likely be driving longer distances so I’ll be driving her smaller, more fuel efficient vehicle more often than not. However, she is a giving person and wants me to experience buying a new vehicle, or she just wants me to enjoy the payments of it. I’m simultaneously looking forward to having something I’m proud to own but nervous about actually having to protect it. With my two previous vehicles, I could drive down my parents’ gravel road doing the speed limit on a dry, summer day. After the new vehicle, It’ll take some reprogramming to take it slow so I don’t get it too dirty or chip the wheel well with a slew of stray rocks. This is a little like writing a eulogy for someone who is still with us but I think when the process is over, I’ll look back on my time with the Saturn and Hyundai and appreciate the simplicity of the cars and how they carried me through my teens and twenties.
Speeding
Through
L
ife
