Cherry bay-yay-beee
October 24, 2010 by Cynthia
“A Camry?” said the famous artist, “Well….that’s a SAFE choice.”
In the end, I guess I’m just a safety girl.
I’d planned to continue my careful vehicular investigations through next week and zero in on a new car choice sometime next Sunday. Then a financial-analyst-turned-divorce-destitute-car-salesman made me an offer I couldn’t refuse and I’m now the proud lessor of a cherry-red Toyota Camry.
Go figure.
Mom and I spent all day Saturday giving car salesmen a chuckle. “You want to test-drive the SUV, the sedan AND the tiny-tin-can-with-wheels?* That’s a rather wide range,” explained one.
Yes, but cars have changed in the ten years since I bought Max-the-defunct-Maxima. They’ve gadgeted up until they have more computerized stuff than an iPhone. They’ve gotten fuel-conscious. Added video cameras, and weird engine things and odd nutritional requirements. What if the best car for me was now a truck?
Turned out trucks, SUVs and tiny tin cans are still trucks, SUVs and tiny tin cans. My determination to ONLY buy a hybrid vehicle, preferably a Prius, was overcome by half the auto world’s derision, and tale after tale of folk stranded on the highway when their Prius refused to start. The word “stranded” holds particular significance, given poor Max, so there went the Prius.
I can’t afford the car I really love (a Ferrari Dino, which anyway is so unreliable you practically need to hire a live-in Italian mechanic) and I’m now commuting about 60 miles down the freeway to work. Highway driving comfort has taken center stage so…a sedan.
I’d bloody near decided on the Audi A4. Loved that car, drove like a dream, fit me like a glove, even helped me parallel park (an embarrassing omission in my skills list). That car felt so goooood I tried to ignore the fact that it was well beyond the budget I’d given myself.
Then I test drove the Camry, which was almost as nice, and the salesman said, “How about a three-year lease for half the monthly payment of the Audi, almost diddly zip money up front, and we’ll pay for all maintenance like oil changes and stuff for the life of the lease? You essentially make these embarrassingly low payments, buy it gas, and that’s it.”
Uhm… Mom and I looked at each other. “Can we go sit in the car again?”
The Camry grinned as we opened the doors. “Hi, I’m Cherry, and I’m a cheap date.”
“Call your father,” Mom said. Dad’s a world-champion carguy, has wrangled some amazing deals. “That price for THAT car? Take it,” he ordered.
An hour later, Cherry drove me home. I turned on the satellite radio, and Frankie Valli was singing “Cherry Baby.” (OK, it’s really “Sherry Baby” but when I was a kid I only heard “Cherry Baby” and that’s been its title ever since.)
It seemed like a sign.
Cherry has quickstart guides along with the usual owner’s manualS (plural, yes plural), just like a computer. I can hook up Derrick the DroidX to her, so that she becomes a giant rolling mobile phone, play Derrick’s massive store of music through her sound system and upload all kinds of address/phone number/data directly into her for voice-controlled access. I can ask about nearby restaurants, get an update on traffic (and have her automatically reroute me around congested areas), and she promises to let me know when she needs to see a car doctor.
Yup. I’m in gadget heaven, even if I haven’t figured out how most of it works.
I’m pondering sitting down with Cherry and having a nice long master-to-slave chat, along the lines of “Cherry, I love you down to your tiniest lugnut. And if you so much as SMILE at the idea of stranding me on the I5 onramp, you are so many parts in the junkyard. Got it?”
It seems a little draconian, though, so for the time being I’m just keeping a wary eye on her performance. We’ll see.
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*OK, the salesman didn’t exactly say “tiny-tin-can-with-wheels.” That’s just my interpretation after driving it.
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Ooooh. Good choice. I’ve loved every Toyota I ever owned. You chose well grasshopper. (mixing my movie metaphors)
)
Congrats on your new chariot !!!
We had a Camry for a long while and it was a wonderful car.
I’m not a Toyota fan, but I hope you have good luck with it… I can’t wait for the 90-day review.
Ah, A new car! Now remember how nice and clean this car started out and promise to hose out the inside every once in a while. I seem to remember MAX at times looked like a messy storage bin.
Ed, only because I was going to glass shows with the poor guy. I think I’m off glass shows for life, so it probably won’t be a problem. I hope.
Thanks, all. I really thought I’d be getting something else, but so far I’m having a lot of fun trying to figure out what all these buttons do. (And Cherry drives pretty well, too…)
Good choice. I have had my Camry for 8 years now, and have almost 200,000 miles on her. The only thing is you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO DO THE RECOMMENDED MAINTENANCE. I have and haven’t replaced anything yet.
Jim
Looks very nice. Many Congrats.
p[[[[In 1994, I accompanied my mom to the Toyota dealer to replace her loved-but-oh-so-conservative brown Honda. Conspiring to leave my dad at home (chooser of the aforementioned Honda), I was delighted when my mom picked a cherry red two-door Camry, complete with a spoiler and gold emblems. She felt so empowered and thrilled with her choice!
Mom’s been gone three years now but her zippy little car still pulls into our driveway every day. My 19 year-old son Nick inherited it last year when he started driving. 41,000 original miles and dent-free, you’d think it would be any kid’s dream car. Nick loves it (“I’ve never owned anything so big!”) but wishes it didn’t have a spoiler and was brown, or something a little less flashy.
I like to imagine my mom riding shotgun and keeping him safe.
Enjoy your new baby!
(You can see from the beginning of my previous post that I still have kittens climbing over my keyboard!)
1994, I accompanied my mom to the Toyota dealer to replace her loved-but-oh-so-conservative brown Honda. Conspiring to leave my dad at home (chooser of the aforementioned Honda), I was delighted when my mom picked a cherry red two-door Camry, complete with a spoiler and gold emblems. She felt so empowered and thrilled with her choice!
Mom’s been gone three years now but her zippy little car still pulls into our driveway every day. My 19 year-old son Nick inherited it last year when he started driving. 41,000 original miles and dent-free, you’d think it would be any kid’s dream car. Nick loves it (“I’ve never owned anything so big!”) but wishes it didn’t have a spoiler and was brown, or something a little less flashy.
I like to imagine my mom riding shotgun and keeping him safe.
Enjoy your new baby!
Just curious, how did you reconcile the commute distance (I think you said 60 miles each way) with the mileage limits on most leases?
It was a concern, though it’s 60 miles roundtrip, not each way. I wound up negotiating for more miles, and this particular Toyota dealer was the only one willing to talk about it.
Keep track of your miles or you could owe, literally, thousands when you turn it in. Your commute alone is 15k per year, which is probably close to your contacted mileage.
Yeah, I’ve leased before and gotten hit by that, so I upped the contracted miles amount. I will have to be careful, although if it looks like I’m tracking high in the first year there’s a clause that lets me extend. We’ll see. I just have to let it get me through three years.