Megan and I finally got the Saturn registered with the DMV. I swear to God, there is no state in this union that makes registering a car easy. California managed to screw up the registration process horribly for both of us AND messed up my driver's license by putting the wrong date for my birthday on it. The Kansas DMV only made us come back twice, which still sucks, but at least it went smoothly once we found all of the items they required on their secret list of documents that they don't bother to tell anyone about.
We're going car shopping tomorrow. We've been looking for the right vehicle for the last six months but have been putting off the purchase for whatever reason. The decision to actually buy one was expedited this week when the Camaro got stuck in the latest snow and ice storm. Because the university is in a basin, the only way to get out of the area is to go uphill. Well, the Camaro is a rear wheel drive car and can only go uphill on ice and snow if it can do so without stopping. Knowing the roads were bad on Tuesday, I decided to risk taking Ward Parkway since it's a main thoroughfare through the city and the snow crews would salt and clear it of ice.
I was right... but also so very wrong.
Like I said, the only way out of the area is to go uphill. Ward has a sizable section of uphill and the weather was slowing everything down. Needless to say, the Camaro only made it half way up the hill before I had to pull on to a side street (where someone else had ditched her car) because the stop and go traffic made it impossible to keep traction. I wound up blocking the only lane in and out of this neighborhood for an hour while I waited for traffic to clear up on Ward. Once I was able to back out on to the main street without having to stop traffic, I floored it and managed to get up the hill. I was only able to drive 10 MPH the rest of the way home, so I didn't make it to the apartment until after 7... just in time to go to bed.
After going through that experience, we decided that we needed to buy a car that can handle Kansas winters. We're looking at 2008 Kia Sportage tomorrow. It's pre-owned, so if we like it, hopefully we can get a good deal on it. We were looking at the Saturn Vue, but since GM is going under, we decided to keep that off of the list for now. Honda and Toyota were always on the list, but their resale value is so high that we couldn't get one without taking a huge loan. The Sportage has great safety ratings and I don't care about driving a "non-major brand" car especially if we can get it at a good price.
We've never purchased a car before so this is all new to us, but we're excited and we might walk out of the dealership with a new car tomorrow.
Friday, December 12, 2008
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3 comments:
You know, the DMV does only one thing ... you think they could do it better. Have you thought about a Ford? You know, the only American car company with solid reliability ratings (and it's not going bankrupt).
The only reason the Vue was on the list is because Megan is on her 3rd Saturn Ion. We like the Saturn brand, but the Vue is more expensive than what we can afford.
We didn't consider any other American car companies because I believe that they make inferior products on purpose. The foreign market has figured out how to make vehicles that get amazing MPG and never break down. You seem to like Ford, which is fine, but I cannot rightfully support a company whose sole business model is to make pickup trucks the size of tanks that get 10 MPG.
I've never had any problems with the DMV, whether it be in Kansas or California.
p.s. The word used to verify this post was 'shank'. :)
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