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About Me
I love to have fun while driving and driving my car isn't about getting from point A to point B it's about enjoying the experience.
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Construction Ahead: Expect Delays
On a drive and in life we encounter lots of bumps in the road. With a little patience and sometimes a detour or two we make it through. Remember it's not how you get there it's that you did.
About four months ago I decided to continue furthering my education and get a BA from Western Michigan University. Lucky for me all but about 3% of my program is online, I don't think think I could bear the gas cost driving to campus. It's about 30 miles one way!! Not to mention the main highway exit ramps to I 94 are closed, BOTH of them. To go east you have to continue north, go back south, go west and then do a turn around to go east....tell me that isn't a cluster!!
Then added to that there is a detour north bound on the highway that connects to 94, it takes apx 30 mins to travel the typical 5 mins. The detour crosses railroad tracks AND turns into on coming traffic. Flawed design there!
I think now that fall semester is starting and I have a 15 credit course load I'll just hole up at home and refuse to travel! Sounds good to me!
It started out with a smashed in bumper, I wasn't paying attention in a parking lot (on the phone you know, LOL) and backed right into a light pole. D'oh!! I hadn't hit something with a car in 10 years, not since my first winter as a novice driver. Ugh
THEN....on the way to my graduation party two days later a rock flies up and chips my windshield! Oh man! Another flaw in my new car, just great!
AND the grand finale.....I notice yesterday three nasty scuffs on the side of the bumper complete unrelated to the pole incident.
What a mess! I suppose I'll get a bang for my buck when I pay that $500 deductible. Oh and of course since I had to have the color matched bumper it's $900 intalled instead of $300! Go figure!
How come it never fails that as soon as I take my dog(s) in my new car for a long trip they always throw up! My Nitro smells of something disgusting now, thank heavens my puppy Max decided to do the deed when he was in his crate NOT sitting in the front seat.
And why is it that my fabric seems to be a magnet for short dog hair? I've had a long hair breed for 7 years and her hair never makes a mess but two trips in the car for my Bull Terrier and there are tiny dog hairs stuck to everything.
I guess it's time to detail my truck.
So in addition to my Dad's better performing MPG Mustang he had a Yaris. Which last week was totaled in a parking lot at work. Two accidents in a 3 months period, first his Mustang was rear ended and now the Yaris. Of course now he's speaking of buying a Subaru WRX which just chaps my hubby's ass since he's a fanboy of that car.
Funny how it seems everyone else gets in accidents and has their car totaled but us who always carry gap insurance never even gets in a fender bender. I've only been in two auto accidents and neither I was driving. One was a roll over in a 1985 Escort GT back in 1994 and the other was a rear end to my 2001 Aztek(yes you can go ahead a groan over the vehicle model).
Not that I wish to get in an accident but it would be nice to be able to just start over and get whatever vehicle I wanted. Plus it'd be nice to have a pay out after all these years of paying for gap insurance. Unlike life insurance which eventually benefits SOMEONE paying for this coverage may never pan out to my benefit.
I'm a tad annoyed. I love my Nitro. It's a V6 so I have enough speed and if the window sticker was right about the MPG so would the gas mileage but sadly I don't get 21mpg I somewhere around 17.
What I'm annoyed about more so that I don't get better gas mileage is that my Dad's Mustang GT which is a V8 with obviously much more horse power gets substantially more MPG than I do. He's getting an average of 26 MPG and even topped out near 30 on a road trip recently. He doesn't even have the technology where the extra cylinders shut off at highway speeds.
I guess it goes to show that you can't aways assume a bigger motor will use more gas.
I've had my Nitro for about two months now. Love her, no complaints...well except the heater controls. I practically have to have the dial into the "blue" not to melt my face off when the heats on low even. Could be worse could be the reverse problem. Oh well.
Today she went in for some TSB's and a recall on the brakes. I sent hubby in with a list of TSB numbers for the repair department. I think they're beginning to hate me...it's so much easier to deal with an uniformed customers. Thanks to the forums and the world wide web I'm never uninformed. Hee hee
OH and remember my unlucky friend with the auto troubles. Well he officially deemed his car Christine. On the way home from picking up his son from his Mom's house where he witnessed his grandfather having a heart attack and passing away he hit a deer, rolled his car and totalled it out.
Hopefully now that his car is resting in peace he'll have better luck. Some kind of bad mo jo was following that car around for sure.
Long story short we've got a new 2007 Dodge Nitro SXT 4 x 4 in the driveway and I love her! We traded in the "sick" SXT for the Nitro and hubby now drives my R/T.
So far I love the Nitro, the steering is a little sloppy I'm not going to lie but I can adjust to that in time. I love the bigger engine and realized 4 cylinders just aren't for me. I'll remember that next time I pick a car.
Good news is my snowboard fits length wise in the cargo area so I don't have to worry about hauling my gear now. Which is a good thing because as it turns out the Nitros don't have a roof rack system that works as of now.
I love the color but dh says you better REALLY love this car because we're not trading again before the term is up. Here's hoping I don't have buyers remorse on this purchase too....
Confession time....it turns out hubby doesn't really like his Caliber all that much. For those Caliber haters out there I'm sure this reply will be "Well duh". It's not that he doesn't like Calibers, he just doesn't like HIS Caliber. He likes mine. lol
I'll have to admit that the idea of getting a different car to replace the SXT and still being able to keep my R/T has me interested. I do need a little more room, especially now that snowboarding season is approaching and I board with a group. I don't have nearly enough space to haul my gear and other bodies comfortably. I could get a roof rack but really there are other complaints with the Caliber that I would like to correct with a new vehicle...like it's doggyness and overall lack of interior space
So as silly as it seems we have our dealer running numbers on the Nitro we test drove before adding another R/T to our driveway. Well not the SAME Nitro but that model. As it turned out someone just bought one last month, drove it but never paid. They had to turn it back in so therefore there is a brand new Nitro with a used price tag on their lot.
The finance manager says it shouldn't be a problem but since our Caliber is a lease and the Nitro would most likely be a purchase I have to think long and hard about the commitment to another vehicle. Although history seems to repeat itself and and we don' t drive any one vehcile more than a year or two anyway.
Just waiting on the call to hear the numbers....
My SXT is sick and in the shop for a week. Apparently the crank shaft is shot. The car is only a year or so old and already a major problem. Thank goodness for a full warranty.
We got a rental car while it's being repaired. A Chevy Colbalt, bare bones as it gets. Manual locks, crank windows, crank seat adjustment. It's a 2007 and already has 30,000 miles on it! Sad to say though that despite having the same size motor as our Caliber it's definitely faster. Shamed to say that.
Not to mention the gas mileage is better. My Dad's GT Mustang even gets better MPG than my R/T. Now that's ridiculous. I even had the TSB flash done on the SXT and it's barely averaging more than the Mustang.
Makes a caliberchic bitter:(
My husband recently acquired a family car, his grandfather owned it then his father and now he does. One problem...it's a project car and hubby has no sense of motivation in his bones. He's made a few little attempts to fix the easy stuff but it's just sadly over his head.
Mostly because we have no time and compound that with the issue that we have a one car garage/driveway and currently 3 vehicles. It just doesn't make sense to hold onto it.
So it's for sale, our family 1966 Barracuda is being auctioned away on Ebay. I have a nagging feeling that it will be one of those hindsight is 20/20 and in a year or so we'll see it completely restored and worth LOTS of money but I guess that's just how things work out sometimes. In the first 12 hours the reserve is already met, there's 14 watchers and 400+ hits. Let's hope it turns out to be one of those things were you think you'll get a little bit out of some piece of "junk" and it turns out to be a priceless item!
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