{"id":112,"date":"2006-03-11T23:28:02","date_gmt":"2006-03-12T07:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/wordpress\/?p=112"},"modified":"2006-03-11T23:28:02","modified_gmt":"2006-03-12T07:28:02","slug":"new-car-shopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/2006\/03\/11\/new-car-shopping\/","title":{"rendered":"New Car Shopping"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was driving around San Jose today looking at new cars. My faithful 1989 Acura Legend, which I love, is about worn out. Contenders to replace her. I've priced out the costs of various options and accessories to bring all to about the same equipment level:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

An Acura TL, listing at $34 K (I’d get it in Redondo Red Pearl).<\/p>\n

*Plusses: (a) The dealer is near where I live. (b) I like my old Acura, that go-kart feeling of sitting quite low and feeling the road-rumble.<\/p>\n

*Minuses: (a) Some say that Acuras’ front-wheel drive doesn’t handle as well as rear-wheel drive, not that I’ve particularly noticed this. (b) Same old, same old.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A Lexus IS250, listing at $34.4 K.<\/p>\n

*Plusses: (a) Nice modern shape. (b) Cool red color on the lot. (c) Feels very smooth and lively on the road.<\/p>\n

*Minuses: (a) Cabin seems a bit small. (b) Hard to get it in all-wheel drive.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

BMW 325xi, listing at $36.7 K (in the all-wheel drive version; rear-wheel drive would be $34.7 K).<\/p>\n

*Plusses: (a) Fun to drive, feels very solid, brakes great. (b) Roomy cabin.<\/p>\n

*Minuses: (a) Poor color selections, somewhat stodgy appearance. (b) If I got it, I’d become *aaugh* an aggro BMW driver! (c) costs a bit more.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mini Cooper S, listing at $25.7 K.<\/p>\n

*Plusses: (a) $10 K cheaper than the others! (b) Better fuel efficiency. (c) Cute. (d) Made by BMW.<\/p>\n

*Minuses: (a) Dealer is far away and I haven't gotten up there to drive one yet, but maybe I will soon. (b) Possibly will feel cramped. (c) Possibly not as safe.<\/p>\n

Opinions? Experiences with these cars?<\/p>\n

Metadoubts: maybe I should be looking at hybrids or at cheaper cars or at two-seater sports cars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was driving around San Jose today looking at new cars. My faithful 1989 Acura Legend, which I love, is about worn out. Contenders to replace her. I've priced out the costs of various options and accessories to bring all to about the same equipment level: An Acura TL, listing at $34 K (I’d get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}