Happy Solstice

Today is the winter solstice. The first day of winter. The shortest day of the year. Tomorrow, our days get longer, one little minute at a time. And none too soon.

A funny piece of trivia for you… I bought Ruby on the Summer Solstice of 2006. And I bought her replacement (un-named thus far) during the Winter Solstice of 2009.

Granted, Saturday wasn’t the solstice, but close enough for story telling purposes.

The Husband and I headed off to Car Pros at 10:00am Saturday morning. I knew I wanted to buy from them again. That’s where I got Ruby and they were pretty painless to deal with. I even recommended neighbors to Car Pros and received a $50 when they bought a new car from the same saleswoman I did.

This time, I had done my homework, of course. An excel spreadsheet that listed the cars I was interested in, along with their dimensions, price tags, mpg, and features I wanted (heated mirrors, sunroof, mp3/iPod port, rear defroster and wipe and keyless entry). After much surfing at work…uh…research, I decided to go with the Elantra Touring.


You'll have to pardon the dude in the background. Daylight is limited up here these days, so I took this pic on my lunch break. I was pressed for time.

It’s the next generation of Elantra hatchbacks, even though the body is not at all an Elantra. The hatchback is much more flat and cut off at the back, but there’s still ample amount of room in the “trunk”. It’s a lot more solid than Ruby, and over four inches wider in the wheelbase so it feels like it hugs a bit better. But all of the standard features inside are very familiar – another reason I like it.

And, of course, it’s loaded. Because if you’re going to be forced into buying a new car, get the NEW CAR. It has the mp3 aux port, along with a USB port (so I could put music on a thumb drive and use the USB). The stereo controls are on the steering wheel, the huge radio display also give the temp outside and there are heated cloth seats (aka butt warmers).

And the uber cool feature that I still haven’t figured out how to use is the bluetooth thingy. I turn on the bluetooth feature on my phone, throw it back in my purse and forget about it. If someone calls, I push a button up where my overhead lights are and BAM. I’m talkin’ on the phone. The salesman programmed my phone in for me, but we didn’t have time for him to show me how to put the numbers in or the do the voice recognition or whatever you have to do to actually place a call. I can only answer calls. Which is fine for now.

The only negative thing about it is that I really, really wanted red with the black interior. But the dealership was having a hard time locating one nearby, so I drove the silver one off the lot. Now I notice that everyone on the road has a silver car. I blend. I don’t like blending.

I took CB down and showed it to her this morning. She oohed and ahhed. She said the silver was very “refined”.

It really is a nice car. I’m just having a hard time being excited because I really didn’t want a new car at all. And this whole process has been a colossal pain in my ass. Carless for three weeks, rental car fun, getting turned down for an auto loan (damn mortgage), dealing with car salesmen the Saturday before Christmas and to top off - this great new fear of driving in dark, rainy weather. Fantastic!

Yesterday, Todd said that he was sad that I wasn’t more excited about this car. I compared it to his house burning down. Everyone comes over after you rebuild and says, “Wow!! This is a great house!! Aren’t you excited about your new house?!!”

Well, no, not really. Sure it’s nice, but I really didn’t want my old house to burn down. Ya know?

I’ll get over my grumpiness soon. I do enjoy all the bells and whistles on this car and it’s fun to drive. But I’m still just mourning the loss of my best buddy.