My New Car

[wolven7]

My New Car, originally uploaded by fenryswlf.

So, as you know, I've had two cars catastrophically fail on me within the past year. In the middle of all the other shit for which I've needed money (and it has been a LOT), I needed to be able to get to and from Kennesaw, for teaching.

I looked up cars, and eventually settled on a 2011 Kia Rio. It was a manual transmission, but I've always wanted to learn stickshift anyway. So ext_325066 was crazy/generous/crazy-generous enough to offer her knowledge and vehicle to teach me to drive manual. I need a lot more practice to be truly comfortable, but it went fairly well for my first extended time behind a manual trans.

So we went to the Carmax, and we got into the car... And we realised that there was no Air Conditioning or Power Steering.

Now, I can deal with learning manual-- as I said, I WANT to-- but learning a new way of driving, in a car with no power steering & no a/c?

In Georgia?

I think not. I think that sounds like a recipe for passing the fuck out.

So we--unknownbinaries, ext_325066, and I-- went looking around the lot, and we found several other cars, in the price range. This one-- a 2007 Ford Focus with 42,024 miles-- was about $1.5k more than the Kia, but the monthly payment is not much higher than what the Kia was going to be.

So, on the whole, I'll end up paying roughly $3000 more overall than initially planned for a Newer car, yes, but it's still used, and it's an automatic, rather than the manual transmission I was intending to buy. Payment's at $285/month after $500 down.

Don't think about it don't think about it don't think about it.

And I'm still going to continue lessons with a manual transmission, whenever someone's available, but the long and the short of it is, I need to be able to get to work on Tuesday, and I don't know anyone available to teach me, today and tomorrow.

Finally, I have a shit ton of papers to grade, so... fuck it. I just needed to get this done.

It took six hours, in total, to get this shit handled, from driving there, to getting home. Just... Just Terrible.

I missed not_hothead_yet's party, because we were just so exhausted all we could do was get home, eat burritos, drink dark and stormys and watch 'Brick,' with ext_325066.

Still didn't get to bed until 4am, somehow. So Very Tired.

Comments

[cause-catyljan.livejournal.com]

Something has to be said for cultural differences: I've known people here who find automatics almost verboten - when my brother was learning to drive, my mother stated that a person hasn't really learned if they've passed in an auto. I cannot drive at all though (my epilepsy causes hilarious, subtle breaks in my cognition), making me even more feared and hated.

The last time I was in the States the only stickshift I was in was down Louisiana way. Driving around NOLA in Lianna Patch's rusted, 30 year old...something. A hot 19 year old redhead, driving manual around New Orleans in a car held together by grease and pixie dust. Damn I miss your country.

Brick's a great film. So great that I'm still waiting for my copy back, several years after it was lent.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Manuals are out of favour in the mainstream US, these days, but there was a time when you weren't a real driver if you didn't drive stick.

And I hope you get your copy back before Looper comes out.

[cause-catyljan.livejournal.com]

Here's hoping.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Word

[prosewitch.livejournal.com]

Can I just say, I totally hear you on car angst/manualOMGWTF?!

I've had a dozen practice sessions plus real road driving sessions on Pan's stick-shift and I still psych myself out and get anxious and forget how to get into the next gear because I get so damn worried about it. He's said multiple times that he's fine with me driving by myself but I'm terribly worried about fucking the whole thing up just because there's not an experienced manual driver sitting next to me saying "Calm down, don't worry, stick it back in neutral, then in second, now you're fine."

I've done ok living in a car-centered town with no car for the last 4 months, but with our upcoming move to a part of town that doesn't have bus service, I am super nervous about the whole thing, which manifests when I drive. Sigh.

Best of luck!

[wolven.livejournal.com]

This is exactly it. I was very uncomfortable with the idea of driving back from the dealership without an experienced manual driver there with me.

All I know how to do is breathe, and try to trust my instincts. It served me fairly well, but I'm still a bit twitchy about it.