New Wheels Coming

brian — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:29:25 +0000

Within the first week or so of buying my car, I had to fly to Ohio for a friend’s wedding. I drove to the Harrisburg airport for my departing flight, gripping my steering wheel as if my life depended on it as tractor-trailers moved by me in a pouring rain.

I wanted that car to last for ever. Not just because it cost me a bunch of money, but because I really liked it. I planned on taking care of it and making sure that it lasted for a long, long time.

That was almost six and a half years ago. I found out last week that some of the problems which I just considered a minor annoyance of having an older car had turned into serious issues that force me to do something I really dread.

I have to get a new car.

Well, I don’t have to get a brand-new car, but I do need to get a replacement for my beloved Saturn. Since they have gone out of business, I lost the security blanket that made shopping for my current car so easy.

This is my second Saturn. I barely considered other manufacturers when I bought it. My previous car had treated me well, and Saturn had a new model coming out, one which ended up winning a bunch of awards. I believe I bought the first one in York County, not that the distinction means anything.

I don’t have that luxury any more. Before I even got the final diagnosis on my car, I started looking at other options. I needed to come to grips with the task ahead of me as soon as possible.

I hate that my car means this much to me. I wish I could walk or bicycle to work. I have had that option before and loved every minute of it. But my commute makes that impossible. I spend about 10 hours a week in my vehicle, making car buying slightly stressful.

I need something which will last, but I can’t spend too much because of how much I have to budget for gas. I want some sort of hybrid, but need to consider whether the gas savings justifies a higher sticker price. And don’t even get me started on how awesome an all-electric vehicle would be because they cost too much and don’t have the range needed for my commute.

So the hunt begins. I have already started to obsessively visit dealer websites and plan on making some Sunday visits to try and map out my strategy before getting asked a hundred questions. I need to get better educated on interest rates and blue book values, especially since I might buy a used car for myself for the first time in more than 20 years.

I wish I could spend that time waving a magic wand over my car or making some sort of sacrifice which would fix its problems and give me a few more years without a car payment. I’ll just have to remember the good times, like making it safely to the airport in the rain that day.

Tailgated

brian — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:43:00 +0000

On my daily commute, I travel a number of country roads. While the speed limits sit at 40 pretty much the whole way, I prefer this route over any other because I don’t have to deal with backups. I can pretty much predict within a couple of minutes when I will hit certain milestones. This makes getting to and from work much less random than folks who travel on Baltimore’s highways.

This does not mean my ride goes without any problems. The rate of speed generally fluctuates in the low 50s, but you can get stuck behind some slow people or deal with people creeping up behind you. Last Friday, I had both problems from the same person.

The guy in front of me for the first half of the ride wasn’t going that slow, but he was sitting right around the speed limit. I didn’t get road-ragey or anything, but I really hoped I could get in front of him even though not too far ahead of him sat three cars also going slower than I would normally hope.

The ride has very few passing zones, but I had the chance to pass him as I approached one. A stop sign at a significant intersection sat not too far past that so I hoped I could get in front of the first guy and maybe some of the others would turn there, giving me the chance to control my own destiny for the second half of my commute, as it were. So I got to the passing zone, pulled into the other lane and accelerated past the car in front of me. As I looked in my rear-view mirror, I noticed something weird. I hadn’t put much room between the two of us. Then, at the stop sign, I noticed something weird after I stopped.

He gunned it as I entered the intersection (squealing his tires) and almost rear-ended me. I couldn’t see his headlights behind me. Yep, the guy who drove just at and even a little below the speed limit for 20-25 minutes was now tailgating me. For a good 10-15 minutes, he kept almost no space between our cars. I only rarely had a chance to get a good view of his headlights behind me because he rode my tail so close. In fact, I didn’t notice when he eventually turned off because he had been so close.

People can get crazy when they drive, but this was one of the scarier situations I had experienced. First off, I never made any gesture or anything toward this guy (or woman – I never got a look). I didn’t flip them off or blow my horn or flash my lights, I merely passed them. Legally. Maybe they thought I revved my engine when I did it and took offense to that, but it’s not the longest passing zone in the world. I needed to act quickly.

But even if they thought I was being too hasty, they totally changed their driving tactics when I passed them. Not only did they go a lot faster, but they drove dangerously close to my car. I admit I was tempted to hit my breaks hard to try and back them off, but they were so close, I worried that would end up working out worse for me.

I felt really stressed as I drove with them behind me and thought that if they had only gone five miles an hour faster, I might not have even considered passing them. Instead, they added 10-15 mph (I admit i was speeding, but nothing out of the ordinary for that road at that time) and tailgated me.

Other than helping me vent, I don’t know my point except that people need to chill out. This all happened the day of the Sandy Hook massacre and, while I’m not even trying to pretend I went through anything really bad, the thought of the guy behind me with a gun did cross my mind. If someone passes you, they are just trying to get moving a little faster. They aren’t challenging you.

Driving – Regular Guy

New Wheels Coming

Tailgated