The demise of "little blue"

Back in 2001 I got a used 1998 metro.  It was cute, it was standard (I adore driving standard) and it was great on gas.  I only drive a 6 mile commute per day and as right around then our family began to expand, Little Blue was really mostly just for me to drive to work.  Usually the van was used for family trips and the only time the metro functioned that way was if only part of the family went some where.  We tend to travel as a pod so that didn't happen often.

You can imagine that a car driven in this manner doesn't rack up the miles quickly.  In fact, as of tonight this car only had 71K on it.  But it was time to let Little Blue meet her maker.  Back in the end of January she flunked safety and emmisions.  It was supposedly just a rocker panel and resetting the engines computer.  My boss knew a guy who knew a guy who would fix the rocker panel cheaply.  Except that the guy fell off the face of the earth and so I eventually decided I would have to take the metro to my pricey but trustworthy mechanic.  That decision became a bit more pressing when the old dear began to leak gas last night.  I drove her over today and they called me at work, essentially issuing a DNR order for her.  Structurally much more was wrong than the inspector or myself thought and not only would repairs vastly exceed the car's value, my mechanic could not vouch for the cars stuctural safety even with those efforts.  So I went and redeemed my leaky dying Metro and went car shopping.

I stopped at a dealership on a whim.  It was raining and I prowled around the lot, surprised to find 3 cars with manual transmissions.  Options people!  I talked with the guy there and in another weird twist of fate, my mechanic goes over this guys cars before he sells them!  Talk about feeling like the goddess was guiding me.  I tried a Scion and it handled very well.  It is an 06 and has 55K miles on it, a one owner car.  Financing approval took 30 minutes.  I signed papers and they will do the registry and insurance run for me tomorrow and i can pick it up after work.

The only downside is that I hate car payments and have not had any for years.  Sigh.  Such is life though and a safer vehicle is nothing to sneer at.