okay
so what kind of car do you want
well i think we're we have pretty much narrowed it down to a Mazda minivan
oh
the new uh the uh M P V
um-hum
the uh the one that's the all wheel drive
do you have a family
yes
uh that helps
well we're we do it mainly because we travel we do a lot of traveling and i want to do it in comfort
um-hum
right now we have we have we have a four door you know sedan but it's just uh it just doesn't have quite as much room and it's not very comfortable to drive long distance in
you you sound like you've been looking recently or you're buying soon
well we've we've been looking for about you know two years to decide but you know with the style changes you know they're they're a lot of them are changing right now and we're trying to wait until we see what what it's going to you know the style going to stay for a while
um-hum
and uh supposedly the Mazda is going to change this coming year
and we'll just we'll wait till the ninety twos come out
that won't be much longer
no so that's that's pretty much uh you know where we stand now how about how about you
yeah
well actually i haven't it's funny i haven't been looking at all i mean because um i'm a grad student and
and my wife's got an eighty seven
Olds Ferenza and i have an eighty two Bonneville
which basically our our our our plan is to wait another year until i'm done with graduate school and then sell the Bonneville for whatever we can get for it and go out and buy another a a new car some place else and i think
we probably i'm sort of stuck i want half of me wants some sort of little sporty thing just for the hell of it because it may be the last time i can drive one for a long time and the other half of me says be pragmatic and get some sort of
um probably small economical car for a couple of years and then get something bigger like a minivan when when when we have kids and stuff or or or when we travel a lot
yeah
yeah you pretty much have to take advantage of the uh the wild and crazy while you can and then you got to turn into the practical
yeah
right
that's kind of the way i've had to transition i was into you know the sportier cars and then uh when when when it comes to putting car seats and all that kind of stuff in it you know you just don't uh
can't get away with it any longer
yeah they don't work
or then and then you got to wait until you're you know after your kids are grown and you can scale back down again
yeah
but uh you know right now i have a pickup truck
and it's one of the supercabs and you can get you can get uh you know kids kids and everything in there the only thing is it's it's not very comfortable
right well it's a it's a it's note like the i've seen that Mazda van and and it seems like it would be the right thing then
yeah
well they've made some changes over the you know the last couple of years since they've come out this year they're coming out with a new transmission a little bit heavier duty transmission
which the Japanese are not well known for but uh
right
but they're supposedly getting a new uh transmission in fact i think Board Warner's the one that going to going to design it for them
oh okay that'll be nice
and that'll that'll help some and uh they're going to change the interior to where the backseat itself can either be removed or laid laying down into a bed
whereas now it can't
oh okay
you can lean it back a little bit but not all the way
right
so we're looking at those type things also
that's just yeah it's thinking ahead
yeah plus you know the the uh the wheel base uh
it's real good
the way it is right now the all wheel drive
it's a little bit higher up off the ground but they're going to raise it three more inches up
and a little bit more clearance
that'll give you a little extra
yeah
and uh you know not that i really need it for any but i like sitting up high so you can see
yeah it's actually a real nice feeling
i uh grew up driving the Suburban and then recently i test drove
for some strange reason i test drove a Range Rover
yes
not because i was going to buy a forty thousand dollar Jeep mind you
but just but but because um my my wife works for a temporary agency
and they and and they had a job and they called me basically i basically i was shopping the agent to make sure you know he was doing good things by Range Rover you know
they sent me out as a to sort of act like i wanted to buy one
basically and then report back to the company as to how the salesman is doing
um
so i had to act like a buyer and uh
that's kind of interesting
yeah it's a neat little um it's it's it's it's
it's sort of like being a scab i guess in a sense but uh but i used you know i mean he did a wonderful job so i just went back and said wonderful things about him you know but we went and part of it was test driving a Range Rover and i realized afterward you know it's a real nice ride because it's nice you're nice and high
lots of clearance and stuff like that like you said but
forty seven thousand dollars is
forty thousand dollars yeah that's just way too much for for a jeep in my opinion
it's a little stiff
yeah i agree i don't think even if i had the money to spend on it i don't think i'd buy one
no i wouldn't i mean i would get if i wanted to pick out a car like that i'd go for a Bronco or or or you know Blazer or something i figure it's
plus nowadays you know you it cars are high anyway you know can't hardly get anything decent for less than you know nineteen or twenty
yeah
and that's that's a pretty big investment even nowadays and i want something that's going to last me for at least seven eight years
yeah
and uh
i just can't see you know these people spending these thirty five to forty five thousand dollars on BMWs and Mercedes and then trading them every year or two
oh yeah this this is nothing i mean he um he was showing me they had this i was you know they had they had a beamer there that was seventy eight thousand and a Mercedes that was ninety
God that's so that's silly
you know and the man claimed that he sold fourteen of these Mercedes the previous year
i uh i like i say i don't i think even if i had the money i wouldn't want something like that it's just not within my it's just it's impractical
it was amazing
yeah
it totally impractical and i i can't imagine what's that much better about them that
too many other good things you can do with the money besides waste it uh i just uh you know there's too many people that need things and
right
you know places that you can put it
yeah i agree
not not to waste money like that
it'd be nice to think that i could afford it mind you but
yeah i mean it'd be nice to be able to afford it but i i'm just not i even if i had the money i i'm i know for a fact i just wouldn't i wouldn't buy one i just can't bring myself to do that kind of stuff
yeah no i wouldn't
but uh
we try to keep our cars on an average of eight to ten years if we can if we can get by with it we have a Volvo right now that's
i t's seven years old and it's got uh about eighty five thousand miles on it and it still drives like it's brand new
i was going to say a Volvo at eighty five thousand miles is still being broken in isn't it
about that's about right and we we anticipate on keeping that car for hopefully another five six seven years if we can if we can make it go that long
i mean
yeah those aren't aren't those the ones that that have is it Volvo or Saab that has like the three hundred thousand mile club and
well Volvos uh there's a lot of them that we in fact we have a mutual friend uh my
my wife and i that uh
they uh they just passed three hundred thousand miles on theirs
and the car's probably still fine right
it's still mechanically fine now you you know there's there's money to invest in it during during that three hundred thousand miles you know uh timing chains and and various other things but
right
all in all if you if you take it mileage uh based on what you spent over that life of the car
it's wonderful
relatively cheap
yeah
so uh
you know i i so far i can't complain it's been a good car and and we're going we're like i say we'll try to keep it for a long time it's been paid off for several years
the that's that's nice to have no payments yeah
yeah and uh
the the only other thing is you know the the pickup truck's nice but it's impractical for for traveling and family so we'll get something that we can haul stuff in if we have to and then have it for you know trips and and everything
um-hum
that's great you've really thought this out it sounds like i mean i'm sort of you know i sort of look around and go yeah that's a nice car that's a nice car but i haven't really
well nowadays it pays to shop because you're going to have to live with it for a while you know if you if you're paying for it for three or four years
right
uh
uh that's a long time right there in itself and then you don't want to turn around and and you know the next time you buy a car it's going to be more expensive and uh you don't want to start another payment that's going to be up around four or five hundred dollars a month
to be paying for a car
that's true
so uh it it's it's crazy so
that's that that that's real true actually
but the little that eighty two Bonneville that you have that that uh that's probably a pretty good car
that's that's actually it's got um it's actually it's low on mileage given that it's eighty two it's only got seventy five thousand on it and uh
or seventy four or whatever you know and it's it's in uh it's a funny coincidence that my my cousin sold me the car
and she's up for the weekend now so she's out babysitting in the next room sort of perfect coincidence it's a perfect time to be talking about that car um but yeah it's just it's just you know i have little problems here and there you know um stupid things start to go like the uh
i can't open it it has electronic windows unfortunately electric windows and doors and the uh
and the passenger window is gone you know it doesn't open any more but i'm not going to fix it because i'm going to sell it in a year
yeah well you know uh things like that that go out you know if you replace them it's just so costly anyway
yeah it's it's it's seventy five dollars for the motor alone
and then another seventy five to install it you know so that can that that's crazy or like the air conditioning went the air conditioning sort of blowing warm air so i went down to the you know my local mechanic and for forty dollars they did an air conditioning check and they
it's crazy
yeah
went through everything i told them to put in a shot of Freon and they said yeah it needs a shot of Freon but then he came back and he said well the reason you're losing the Freon is because you have a leak in this condenser line and when i and that's a hundred and fifty dollars to fix that and then while we're in there we have to change this this and this and you know and
so it would would would would have wound up costing me close to four hundred dollars but he said look if you're selling the car in a year don't bother doing it all he said i'll give you a shot of Freon every now and then and and you're you're fine you know so
well and your wife has what kind of car
she has an eighty seven um Ferenza i it's an Oldsmobile yeah it's an Oldsmobile
oh Ferenza
yeah okay that's Pontiac okay or Olds Firenza yeah
yeah no it's Olds actually olds yeah that's actually a real good car i'm finding it's uh mechanically is very sound um
unfortunately the body was rust proofed by a company called Rusty Jones
um-hum
which i'm not sure if you've ever heard of or not but uh
Rusty Jones went out of business because their rust proofing wasn't very good
so now you've got some rust
and now i've got some i mean the eighty two has
no rust at all and the eighty seven has some pretty big rust spots on it so it's
that's terrible that's one that's one bad thing about living in an area where you have to put salt on the roads
so and
yeah actually we're we're looking forward to getting out of here
oh
we're yeah in a year i'm done and then we're moving south or west
or southwest
