Automobilia

Decisions, even decisions reached after painstaking research and consideration, can be unmade.  I had decided I wanted to buy a used Honda Element (there is no other kind, since they are no longer produced).  Yesterday, I drove one…a 2006 in great shape, with an asking price of only $8950. Fortunately for me, I did not make the trip all the way to Olive Branch, Mississippi to drive it.  I drove only as far as Sherwood, Arkansas.  I did not hate the vehicle.  But I did not love it.  It did not feel right.  It did not feel like my vehicle.  So, back to the drawing board.

Once upon a time, I owned a soccer mom’s car, a brand-new 1991 Toyota Previa van.  I was laughed at for having bought the thing.  The laughter bothered me a bit (I was less mature back then).  But I enjoyed that vehicle.  I could remove seats and haul four by eight sheets of plywood in the beast.  It was a practical vehicle. And it was a nice road-trip vehicle, as well. We took a road-trip to California in that monster and enjoyed every minute of it.

All of this brings me to my point: later today, I will visit a man (self-described as a senior citizen) who is selling his 2005 Honda Odyssey EX-L minivan. He is the original owner and claims to have babied the Odyssey since he bought it; he hand-washes it, waxes it, keeps it in his garage, and treats it like his child, he claims.  He’s asking $11,000 for it, which according to Motortrend.com and others, is a reasonable price for the condition (it looks fanstastic, based on a cursory inspection in a grocery store parking lot) and miles (94,000).

If not the Honda Odyssey, then we’ll probably go for a later-model Toyota RAV4.  I’d buy a 2012-2014 Toyota Avalon (even at their obscene prices), but at this moment…at 5:04 a.m. on Sunday…I really want more than highway luxury; I want practicality.  But, man, I sure loved my Avalon.  I loved the old beast, the one I called The Bastard.

Of course, I could be persuaded to buy a 2011 Ford Ranger pickup for the right price…like the one offered by a nearby dealer for only $10,800.  It has all the requisite bells and whistles (unlike my old one, inherited from my late sister and recently purchased from me by a good friend who wanted reliable utility at a superb price), like power windows and seats.

I deserve bells and whistles, don’t I?  Have I not attained adequate age and eccentricity to call myself a geezer…thereby deserving all manner of bells and whistles?

If money were no object, I’d probably buy a used Avalon AND a used RAV4.  I would NOT buy a new car; I’ll never again take the financial hit that buying a new car delivers.  Others are free to do so, if they desire to line the pockets of people whose pockets already have ample lining.

OK, this was not intended to be a political post.  I think I must be a political animal. Speaking of which, have you seen the 2012 TV series Political Animals, with Sigourney Weaver?  I loved it!