I have a new car.

[cjsmith]

Enormous thanks go to ladycelia, who called every Honda dealer in striking distance and found me the exact car I had chosen, in stock on a lot, at a very good price. Well, it was a very good price once she was done with the phone call. I am in awe.

I went down there this afternoon and signed a mountain of papers. There were not as many papers and signatures as when we bought the house, but there were way more than when I bought a car seventeen years ago, that's for sure!

Driving it back to work I felt like I was driving a bus. The significantly larger size will take some getting used to. I am also, apparently, an asshole magnet in this car. I got cut off four times in twenty minutes.

I took a picture of a big pile of papers, and another of the funkoid alien dashboard, but I didn't take the traditional picture of the outside of the vehicle. Then it got dark out. Pic tomorrow.

My poor dead car is still at the dealership. I hope to pick that up soon.

Comments

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

YAY

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

What a RELIEF to have it DONE!

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

You should have gotten a reinforced bumper for ramming assholes.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I may need one if this keeps up!

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

push bumpers (http://www.policeone.com/police-products/vehicle-equipment/push-bumpers/) are tops on my list of accessories I want for my car... sadly they seem to only make them for police cars and SUVs :(

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

We had a "roo bar" on the front of our car in Australia so that if we hit a kangaroo on the highway, it'd keep the engine out of our laps. (Kangaroos are very bottom-heavy, and total cars.) They cause such damage to pedestrians and other cars, though, that there's some move there to require drivers to take them off before entering the city, or one of various other modifications to city-safe their cars. Some city-residents have them because they make the car look tough (kinda like the big raised trucks in, say, San Mateo that have never seen dirt). We had ours because kangaroos were a real hazard in our neighborhood.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

On a tangentially-related note, I remember someone telling me once that while hitting a deer is Very Bad for your car, hitting a moose is worse. The nose of the car knocks the legs aside and the moose lands on the passenger cabin, killing everyone inside. I have no idea how true this is, but it does make me think about how the shape and weight distribution of what you hit makes a big difference to the outcome.

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

Well the main thing I want it for is to, well, PUSH things! Car broken down and needs moved to the side of the road? *push*! And no worries about silly things like scratched paint :) When my dad's pickup broke down once I pushed it ~10mi home with my car (not the current one) but I ripped the front licence plate holder off going around the corner into the driveway... I needed push bumpers!!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I can imagine they'd be useful for a car that's seemingly invisible. (How can people not see something the size of a car?) I wonder if some enterprising junkyard denizen could help figure out a solution.

[jb98.livejournal.com]

Congrats!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :-)

[anirishpenguin.livejournal.com]

CONGRATS! You must be very relieved! What color/model did you get?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Silver Honda Civic (nonhybrid, *sniffle*). This car is HUGE! :)

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Except for the year, I think it's a twin for my older daughter's silver Honda Civic. Congrats!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm liking it so far.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Yay!!!!
Congratulations! You'll get used to her more quickly than you anticipate! :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I went just now to get my old one home, with rfrench's help, and man, I am just going to have to go cold turkey or I'll never do it.

I think it helps that my old one flashed the gas light on the way back. :)

[juverna.livejournal.com]

Yippee! Yes, looking forward to pictures. Congrats!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :) I'm half-excited, half-terrified to be driving this new enormous thing!

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Heh. I grew up around vans and such. I think from the outside the Civic is tiny, but it does have a huge amount of room inside.

Unfortunately, I'm also discovering it is indeed invisible. Better than the Baja was for being an obvious speeder. Worse for incidents such as you describe.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I grew up in a VW van, but I do not willingly *drive* one! :-) Certainly by most people's standards today's Civic is small. For seventeen years I have been driving something significantly smaller.

The little Corolla suited me. As I once joked to someone who was teasing me for taking only half a doughnut: hey, I'm only half a person.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

My Cavalier seemed big after driving the Escort for so many years. But I'm used to it now.

Seems everyone is getting silver cars lately?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I suspect I'll get used to it too.

As for silver it helps that the color choices are limited right now. I could have dark blue, medium blue, dark gray, black, or dark red, all way too hot in the sun in California; white, which shows dirt like mad; or silver. :-)

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

Hurrah!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

YAYAYAY! :-)

[pixiecrinkle.livejournal.com]

I have a black civic that is now 8 years old. I immediately had to dub it "Little Black Stealth Car" because it has always been apparently invisible to other drivers. I get cut off *constantly*!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's really going to be an annoying aspect of this car. Darn it! Perhaps I'll have to paint it hot pink or mount hunting lights all over it for visibility. ;-)

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

flames!!!! or racing stripes. or ..... :D

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

NEON LIGHTS! :-D

[dcart.livejournal.com]

Congratulations and enjoy it!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I am, so far! And I'm even a bit more comfortable about it now that I've officially added this car to my insurance. :)