Moving Up...

Sunday, 17 September, 2006, 21:37

Today was the end of an era, and of course the beginning of a brand new one.

I no longer drive a piece-of-crap American car (not that all American cars are bad, just the Metro). Now I drive a kick-ass Japanese car. Yep, I finally gave in and bought a new(ish) car. I was originally going to go for a 1998 Subaru Forester that had 101,000 miles on it. But if you've ever tried to get a loan on a used car, you know that banks don't like cars with over a hundred thousand miles on them.

But then I got to thinking and realized that this is a car that I will actually WANT to drive. And I fully intend to drive the car as long as possible. So with that in mind, I went with a 2005 Subaru Forester. Sure, it's the base model with only a few of the options. But I think that it is the perfect car for me. And the first thing to go on it will of course be a bike rack.

It was a tiny bit sad letting Metro go, but the life that I got out of her truly surpassed my expectations. 51,000 miles on a car that I paid $200 for is surely a worthy investment. And I got $100 for the trade-in, so I really only paid $100 for it.

After I bought the new car, the first drive I went on was naturally in the mountains. I drove up Highway 9 from Santa Cruz up to Castle Rock. I had to do a little bit, so I climbed a little at Castle, and walked about 1.5 miles. Then I called Leslie (who I bought Metro from), and then headed back down Highway 9 into Saratoga and met Leslie for coffee.

And of course, my dad absolutely loves the Forester. It certainly looks better in the driveway than an old, beat up, Geo Metro. = )

So here are the first pictures... The first is in the parking lot behind the Blue Rock Shoot; and the second is me with the salesman (Dan Levine) at Subaru of Santa Cruz (I apologize for the bad picture...).