Well, it’s done. Found, checked out, bought, paid for, brought home. We are pretty pleased with ourselves, the doomed Yaris, is heading for the cruncher, Maria bought a Hyundai Accent, four years old with $93,000 miles on it for $ 6,650, the asking price was $7,500.

Maria did an impressive job of checking out the car, getting it examined by a mechanic, getting new brakes put on it, and negotiating a good  price. I did spot it in the lot when I drove by but that was about my only contribution. I just took it for a drive around town and I like it a lot. Plenty of headroom, it ran smoothly and quietly, the dashboard is well thought out and logical and easy to use.

I was never comfortable driving the Yaris, just too tight for me, but this was fine, I’d be happy to drive it anytime. And I will not bitch or complain about it. We bonded. When my car is in the shop, I can drive this one.

I am happy we had enough money saved up for an emergency to buy it, this is not something I would ever have thought to do (or even needed to) in my prior life. It feels good to be responsible for my money. That isn’t something I would ever have done my prior life either.

I like that we have no payments to make and Charlie our mechanic says this car can go another 200,000 miles if well maintained. From  Friday to Tuesday isn’t bad, and we never even left our small town. I learned again not to generalize about people or things — Jerry Simon is honest and easy to work with, and he sold us a good car at a very reasonable price. You can’t really ask for more than that.

It’s a Maria car, no frills, easy to drive, good gas mileage, long life span.

Okay, this feels good. It’s good to get on our anniversary, once she gets over her attack of nerves (she does not like to spend thousands of dollars) she’ll be happy to have it. Lots of people tell us that the police love to pull over red cars, sounds like an urban myth to me. We’ll see soon enough.

Maria doesn’t go far and never goes fast.