wildflowersoul

I just read the weirdest thing on AskMetafilter. Are you really supposed to start up automatic cars with your foot on the brake? What does this do???? Is it really bad if you don't? I've been driving for over a decade and I don't think I've ever done this.

So.... this weekend we:

1) Attended an awesome birthday party for komos at Sunset. They had tasty mudslides.

2) Threw a pretty sweet Buffy marathon. *sigh* Fool for Love remains one of the best episodes of any television show ever.

3) Joined Costco. Bulk toilet paper! Gallons of olive oil! Cheap consumer electronics! I just really like the little samples of food they hand out. Not that I'd buy most of the pre-made food they shill, but sometime you want just one bite of pie.

4) Purchased our first vehicle. *jumps up and down* I even did an awesome of haggling down the price. We settled on a 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer. It only has 31K miles on it, and it drove really well on the test drive. I actually didn't like the Corolla when we took one for a spin, and it's like pulling teeth to get anyone to drop their price on Toyotas. Even bargaining for this was a test of pure will. But we succeeded. We'll be wheeled and ready to go in about a week.

Mmmm.... cars. So, what kind of cars do you all own, and how much do you like 'em? How do they fare in wintery road conditions? Gas mileage good? How many miles on a used car is too much to consider? I'm thinking no more than 50k, tops, since we'll be putting a crapload of miles on the thing once we have it.

I'm drooling over Subaru Legacies and Outbacks, but I don't think we'll find one with a reasonable amount of miles in the price range we want (with automatic transmission... there are actually a handful meeting the first 2 criteria but they're stick shifts and I'm keen on learning stick). I'm also eyeing Volvo S40s, which are just a teensy bit above our price range. But they are a sweet, sweet ride. What's the chance we could talk a used car priced at $12,000 down to $9-10k?

We'll probably end up with a Ford/Toyota/Honda in the end, but a girl can dream.