A new car

About a month ago my car started having problems accelerating. It wasn't the first time this happened, about five years ago I had a similar problem, so I kind of assumed it was the same problem. But when I took it in to Pep Boys they told me I should bring it to a dealer because the problem was with the transmission and could be quite serious. I don't have a local mechanic, or even a dealership I like, so my Dad offered to take my car to the dealership he goes to in Holyoke MA. He's bought a few cars in there and always takes both his and my Mom's cars there for maintenance so I figured this was my best bet.

So after being without a car for a couple weeks, the nice folks at Gary Rome Hyundai had good and bad news for me. They could fix my leaky exhaust (hurray!) if I wanted to put in a new transmission (boo!). Yup. It was as good as dead.

This was the second car I really drove, but it was the first car that was really mine. It was a 2004 Hyundai Accent and I had driven all 96,000 miles on it myself. I loved it. It was good to me. And it also taught me a valuable car owning lesson: make sure to get all scheduled maintenance done on time and keep the receipts (otherwise your warrant is void).

Scratches courtesy of on-street parking

So with that said, I had to decide between getting rid of my car altogether or buying a new/used one. My (awesome) Dad had gone over to talk to the guy at the dealership and found a good deal on a used 2009 Accent with only 35,000 miles on it. They were nice enough to hold the car for me until I could go out there to check it out.

And it turns out, I liked it. Totally a step up from my old car. Power windows and locks, a CD player (what will I do with all my cassettes now?), cruise control, and a roomier interior and trunk.

So I'm now the proud owner of a new, used car.

I'm pretty thankful for my parents who helped me figure out this whole car situation. I'm pretty excited for my new car. And I plan to take much better car of this car.