Sunday, October 14, 2007

New Car Guilt

So I had to break down an get a car. After weighing the financial options, I decided that a new Toyota Yaris was the best choice. Appealing factors: Cheap, Fuel Efficient, Cheap. Did I mention Cheap? If my finances hadn't been such a big concern, I'd have liked to have found a diesel vehicle, but so far as I know VW doesn't sell any right now, and I don't know of any other's available in the US market that aren't heavy duty trucks.

I seriously considered used, but I wasn't willing to spend half to three quarters of the cost of a inexpensive new vehicle for something that was 3-8 years old, and already had nearly 100K miles on it. Feels like inheriting maintenance costs. So, among the 10 most fuel efficient vehicles on the market, the Yaris was the cheapest. My second choice was the Honda Fit, which is a slightly larger vehicle and about 3K more expensive.

So, I feel like a poser now, what with having leased a vehicle. I'm job hunting and apartment hunting simultaneously, and I'm likely to be contracting for a while, so I don't have an immense amount of control over my commute, other than declaring how far is too far. I'm trying to get an apartment in a area where food and entertainment are walking or biking distances away and keep my mileage down.

Ah well, I'll just have to continue to drive as fuel efficiently as possible, and use my bike/walk for everything I feel comfortable with. We can't always do everything perfectly.

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