Buy American? No way!

Last week, I leapt into that all-American blissful state of indebtedness, all for my love of mobility and an easy life. I bought a new car! I chose to get a Toyota Matrix, which is the most perfect car for me, for a variety of reasons. I go to enough bicycle races and civil war reenactments, hauling stuff around, that it will be great to have a car that will hold more of my things than the old Escort did. You should have seen the looks on salesmen's faces when I told them I was looking for a 4-door wagon or hatchback with a manual transmission that gets 35 mpg on the highway!

This is not just a "newer" car for me, but a brand new car, one that had only been driven a total of 35 miles, which includes the 10 or so miles my mom and I drove it for a test drive, before I signed my life away to own it. And I've observed over the past week that I really notice the miles I am driving racking up the mileage on the odometer, much more so than in my old car. What is it about owning a new car that makes a person so much more sensitive to miles, dirt, and bird poop than they were before? I think I'll be a more fanatical car wash and vacuum gal from here on out. LOL

Of course, Toyota Motor Credit mostly owns the car right at the moment, but over time I'll eventually acquire the right to really claim it is mine. :)