For those of you who don't know, i crashed by beautiful beautiful Caliber last month.
It was tragic.
It wasn't even my fault either - this guy whips a u-turn from a parking spot in the middle of edmonson ave, without looking. i had 0 time to stop.
Here is the aftermath:
Please note that while MY car is F*CKED UP, his truck was barely scratched:
Yeah, that's fair.
Well, I begged and begged with Geico not to call it totalled, but they just wouldn't do it.
Like the real champs they are, they gave me the bad news officiall until almost an entire month later, meaning my rental car coverage was going to expire in 4 days. (nice job Geico, i'm so glad i pay that monthly bill) so i had to get into a car ASAP.
I'm not sure if you realize this, but when you have a $19,000 car loan out there, it's a lot fucking harder to get another car. So I had to find a place willing to give me credit and that had a car i liked in just 4 days (spoiler alert: i didn't achieve both)
So we went to the most obvious choice (as any Maryland area insomniac will tell you) - Liberty Ford.
They actually had another Caliber there in stock - but it was a stick, and it didnt even have power windows/doors. Ok maybe i'm spoiled. Sue me. After a month in a rental like that, i couldn't bear the thought of investing 20 grand in a flintstonemobile.
I did spot a few i liked, in a good price range, so i started talking turkey with the saleman.
When they ran my credit, the only thing they would even consider putting me in was a big, bad-smelling Impala, or some other monster. This was actually going to cost me MORE money than some of cars i actually wanted, but apparently they made the right amount off putting me in one of those to justify the credit risk or something (or they just get to do whatever the hell they want when youre at their mercy).
Long story short - i had to have a co-signer, but i did get the car i wanted. While we were wandering the lot, I lucked out and came across another 5-door/wagonsedan like the caliber - with most of the same features.
Enter the blue 2009 Pontiac Vibe with the red stripe.
I was never much of a fan of Pontiac, less so now that they are out of business, but the price was right, and the car actually had a ton of features that i had pretty much convinced myself I'd never have again. It was an 09, had the neoprene seats, traction control, XM radio, the AC outlet.
At first I balked at the pod-like shape. I've never liked those futurey cars - that's why I got the caliber. But this was too good to pass up.
Plus the Caliber had some flaws - the brakes did jack-shit TWICE now - finally destroying the car in the end. If it hadn't been totalled now, it was just a matter of time. Plus something about the combination of the AWD and the always on fridge/AC-drain killed my gas mileage.
I sacrificed the sunroof, the AWD, the tailgate speakers, and some cargo space i think, but I'm fairly sure I'm better off for it. Plus the Vibe is apparently made at the Toyota Matrix factory in California, and uses all the same parts.
Plus, to be honest, it's basically a Toyota Matric, and it's got a ton more pickup than the Dodge, and will probably last a lot longer.
Check out my NEW baby:
Not too shabby for no credit and 4 days.
(Thanks Monni)
I still need to name this one. I never named the Dodge. Just called her The Dodge. Molly suggested "Mingy" - but Molly suggests Mingy for everything, so maybe I'll keep thinking about that one.
YAY NEW CAR (2)
