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It has been an interesting holiday season for me. First my car was totaled by a 62 year old woman with a Holiday Cheer Content of 0.206, almost three times the limit of Holiday Cheer in Ohio.
Then, I talk to a few personal injury lawyers (I wasn't hurt), but I thought I deserved more than the $3,700 they offered as a settlement. But no go, I was stuck with what they offered.
Now I drive about 100 miles a day to work and back, and my wife is big on saving, so I assumed she wanted me to find an new economy car. So off I go on Cars.com with a price cap of $10,000 and a filter requiring a manual trans (whatever I got, it HAD to be a manual).
I'm looking and I find a few possible cars, test drive a few drove an hour and a half to drive one, but no matter what I looked at, the wife shot it down, saying "Too many miles on it." Now I'm figuring that she wants me to look at newer cars instead of 10 year old, high-mileage cars. But, I DON"T LIKE any of the newer economy cars. Then she tells me I need to look at GM cars ... I hate to say it, but I REALLY don't like the GM economy cars that I think she wants me to look at ... the Sonic and the (gag) Spark.
I suppose I could live with a Sonic, IF it was a stick and IF it was a sedan, not the hatchback ... too ugly. As for the Spark ... a 1.4L engine, CVT trans, ~84 hp/~83 torque???? ... need I say much more?
So I'm at work Wednesday and the wife calls me. She tells me that there are two cars she wants me to look at ... at a dealership an hour from work and two hours from home. BUT, she won't tell me what I'm supposed to be looking at! Thinking I was smart, I googled the dealer and looked up the least expensive cars with a standard. But instead of two cars, I found three, all Sonics, a 2015 (still brand new) and 2 new 2016's. The 16's were hatchbacks ... *SIGH*... but the 15 was a sedan ... *Hope*
So I go to the dealership, hoping for the 15 Sonic, but still fearing a Spark ... I get to the dealer. Once there, I find the salesman is in on it. He won't tell me what I'm there to see either. He just tells me to wait there and he'll bring the cars around. So I wait for an almost unacceptable amount of time, when I see this black car come around the corner ...
ACTUAL DEALER PHOTO
To say I was in shock would be an understatement ... here I'm expecting automotive purgatory, and what I get is Nirvana.
It has the 3.6, 323hp V6, 6 speed manual that has a highway MPG rating *just* a bit lower than my totaled car and it only has 25K on the clock (one owner, clean CarFax)
I've owned 2, third gen Camaros, an '83 and an '89. Both had the 5.0 engine, the '83 was an auto, the '89 was a manual, NEITHER one of these cars had the power of this V6. The handling of this 5th gen was way out of the 3rd Gen's league
Best of all, I pick it up tomorrow (12/27/2015) at noon, and I don't even care that it's black, let the de-swirling begin!
I'd already nicknamed it Vader Jr when I first saw it Wednesday
Don M
Then, I talk to a few personal injury lawyers (I wasn't hurt), but I thought I deserved more than the $3,700 they offered as a settlement. But no go, I was stuck with what they offered.
Now I drive about 100 miles a day to work and back, and my wife is big on saving, so I assumed she wanted me to find an new economy car. So off I go on Cars.com with a price cap of $10,000 and a filter requiring a manual trans (whatever I got, it HAD to be a manual).
I'm looking and I find a few possible cars, test drive a few drove an hour and a half to drive one, but no matter what I looked at, the wife shot it down, saying "Too many miles on it." Now I'm figuring that she wants me to look at newer cars instead of 10 year old, high-mileage cars. But, I DON"T LIKE any of the newer economy cars. Then she tells me I need to look at GM cars ... I hate to say it, but I REALLY don't like the GM economy cars that I think she wants me to look at ... the Sonic and the (gag) Spark.
I suppose I could live with a Sonic, IF it was a stick and IF it was a sedan, not the hatchback ... too ugly. As for the Spark ... a 1.4L engine, CVT trans, ~84 hp/~83 torque???? ... need I say much more?
So I'm at work Wednesday and the wife calls me. She tells me that there are two cars she wants me to look at ... at a dealership an hour from work and two hours from home. BUT, she won't tell me what I'm supposed to be looking at! Thinking I was smart, I googled the dealer and looked up the least expensive cars with a standard. But instead of two cars, I found three, all Sonics, a 2015 (still brand new) and 2 new 2016's. The 16's were hatchbacks ... *SIGH*... but the 15 was a sedan ... *Hope*
So I go to the dealership, hoping for the 15 Sonic, but still fearing a Spark ... I get to the dealer. Once there, I find the salesman is in on it. He won't tell me what I'm there to see either. He just tells me to wait there and he'll bring the cars around. So I wait for an almost unacceptable amount of time, when I see this black car come around the corner ...
ACTUAL DEALER PHOTO
To say I was in shock would be an understatement ... here I'm expecting automotive purgatory, and what I get is Nirvana.
It has the 3.6, 323hp V6, 6 speed manual that has a highway MPG rating *just* a bit lower than my totaled car and it only has 25K on the clock (one owner, clean CarFax)
I've owned 2, third gen Camaros, an '83 and an '89. Both had the 5.0 engine, the '83 was an auto, the '89 was a manual, NEITHER one of these cars had the power of this V6. The handling of this 5th gen was way out of the 3rd Gen's league
Best of all, I pick it up tomorrow (12/27/2015) at noon, and I don't even care that it's black, let the de-swirling begin!
I'd already nicknamed it Vader Jr when I first saw it Wednesday
Don M
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