So, the Ford minivan died on us last Friday. It died a fairly thorough, smoke-coming-out-of-the-engine-lurching-sputtering death. This left us with a choice that wasn't much of a choice: throw more good money after bad (we just spent quite a lot on minivan repairs several months ago) or bump up our plan to buy a new car.
We bought a new car.
His name is Simon. He's a spiffy black 2010 Honda Insight, the resurrection of Honda's original hybrid from a few years back. So now James is commuting in sleek eco-efficiency, and NPR is getting a minivan in not-so-working order (we hope - we're still waiting to here if they'd be willing to tow the donation).
Overall, it's pretty exciting and kind of ironic - we'd just decided the week before to wait to buy a new car and get our money's worth out of the minivan. I guess we did. So, lesson learned. Getting your money's worth out of a Ford means something different than getting your money's worth out of something (anything) else. But hey, at least we did out bit to stimulate the economy... by buying Japanese. Just don't tell Detroit.
I find it very interesting that so many people name their cars. I picked it up from the Mrs. as we never did it in my family. We've had quite a selection of cars - Sammy the 1984 LeBaron, Kirby the 1992 Dodge Spirit, and now Eugene the 2000 Dodge Caravan and Bullet Bill - 2001 Saturn.
ReplyDeleteDon't fret about the foreign buy though - Honda makes quite a lot here in the US. They have a huge factory just for the US east coast market in Marysville OH. If anything - I view supporting these other businesses as best because they came here vs. Detroit outsourcing all the parts of their cars outside the US.
You're dead right about the outsourcing - buying American doesn't mean what it used to...
ReplyDeleteAs for naming cars, it's funny but I'm not sure where I picked it up. We didn't name our cars when I was a kid, but when I got my first car, a 1988 Ford Escort, I very naturally named it Buster. When Buster died, in another Ford-like cloud of billowing engine smoke, interestingly enough, I got Charlie the 2000 Toyota Echo. Naming them just seems right, given that we spend so much time in them :)
I never named things until I started going out with Maddie, so I owe it all to her.... :)
ReplyDeleteAnd this car was built entirely in Japan, fwiw.
Oh, what a cute Simon! And TOTALLY a Simon, too. :)
ReplyDeleteNaming things. Always a good idea! I must agree Simon is awfully cute!
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