There are various different needs that a car usually fulfills for a person. General around-town driving (the majority of my car use) involves one set of priorities — I want a small, light, manual transmission, fuel-efficient car that can carry 4 people comfortably and has a good amount of cargo space. For roadtrips and other long-distance driving, the priorities shift — more comfortable seats, air conditioning, and cruise control become factors.

For the last few years I've owned two different cars to try to meet those different aspects of transportation — my $800 '89 Civic hatchback is my around-town car. It does its job admirably — it's dead reliable and never gives any problems, it's light and compact, the 5-speed keeps the driving fun, it gets 30-35 mpg easily, and the hatchback makes it capable of carrying surprising amounts of cargo. But the a/c doesn't work, and it's pretty uncomfortable on long drives because of the cheap seats, lack of cruise control, and short gearing which makes the throttle pedal really sensitive at highway speeds. So during the hot summer months or on long drives, it's less than ideal.

A few years ago I bought my grandfather's old '95 Buick LeSabre for $1500, which was supposed to fulfill the other half of those needs — it's big and plush and cushy, has cruise control, and the air conditioning works, so it's perfect for long drives, though it's not too fun to drive around town, and it only gets 18-21 mpg. Last year when I bought an ATV, I found another way I could put the car to use — the relatively torquey V-6 has enough power to pull a trailer, so I installed a tow hitch on it. I've since sold the ATV, but I kept the trailer because it's always useful for bringing home big 4x8' sheets of plywood, milling machines, etc.

However, despite the car's low miles (88k), the Buick has been ridiculously unreliable. The transmission failed, and I spent $1200 to install a replacement transmission from a junkyard, but it turned out the replacement transmission had a bad first gear, so the car can no longer handle towing heavy things or driving up steep hills. Then the air conditioning failed, and I spent another $1000 getting that repaired (figuring that the a/c was one of this car's few reasons for existing). Then it started dying mysteriously while driving, and no amount of testing or troubleshooting could track down what the problem was.

So essentially, despite dumping more money into it than it had been worth to begin with, it was completely unreliable, and even when it was running I couldn't trust it for long drives, so it was useless to me. I started thinking of getting rid of it and finding something comparable to fill its shoes — another sub-$2k cushy car with working a/c. But the trials and tribulations of dealing with its neverending problems really wore on me, and I was really wary of finding myself in another similar situation.

At the same time, every few months I'd find myself sitting in a friend's newer car, remarking to myself how nice the fit and finish is, how quiet at highway speeds, and remembering how pleasant it was to own that Evo and never once have to worry about whether or not it was going to start in the morning. In the two years that I owned the Evo, I never once even opened the hood, except when people asked to see the fancy engine. I miss that.

So for the last year or so I've been thinking with increasing frequency how nice it'd be to have another new car. Finally, last weekend we took a 5-hour drive down to Orangeburg, SC for Linda Gonzalez's wedding, and that trip finally convinced me to take the plunge. I decided I'd find a single, new car that meets both sides of my list of priorities — small, light, efficient, stick shift, spacious, and good on gas, while also having working a/c and cruise control.

Of course, one car can't do everything, and the dimension that I sacrificed was performance. That Evo was incredible to drive, but aside from the fact that it cost $35,000, it was terrible on gas (averaging about 17 mpg with easy driving). This time, I wanted to stick to something that got close to my Civic's 30/35 mpg, and I wanted to have a $300-ish monthly payment without financing it for the rest of my life. That put me in the $16-18k price range.

After a bunch of research, I narrowed down my list to the Honda Fit, Nissan Cube, and Scion xB, though the xB wasn't a serious contender because, while the first generation (2002-2006) was light and pretty good on gas, it didn't have cruise control, and the new generation, which does have cruise control, is much heavier and worse on gas.

So I test drove a Fit, and really liked it. It's basically exactly the same size as my Civic, reasonably fun to drive, and it's got tons of cargo space with the seats folded. I did have a few reservations about it — primarily, the transmission feel. Both the clutch and shifter feel completely disconnected from the transmission — there's no resistance at all, so it's hard to tell what gear you're in or when the clutch is engaging. It felt like playing a video game. But despite that, the Fit was looking like my best choice. I forgot to take pictures, though, so words will have to do.

I headed over to the Nissan dealership to look at the Cube, which is pretty crazy-looking, and I like that. They only had a single, automatic (actually CVT) one in stock, and the salesman had a terrible attitude. I asked whether they could get ahold of a 6spd one, and he shrugged and said, "I dunno. Maybe." Despite the poor treatment, I gave the car a fair shot, but I decided it wasn't for me. It too was about the same size as my Civic (though obviously taller), but it didn't have as much cargo space as I'd have expected given its size and shape, and on the highway you could definitely feel the fact that it was so un-aerodynamic.

More or less settled on the Honda Fit, I headed to the Scion dealership to give the xB a try, figuring I may as well. I drove it and it felt a lot like the Cube (plowing its way through the wind). It also has the gauge cluster mounted in the center rather than behind the steering wheel, which I hate. I was about to head home when the salesman mentioned that if I'm interested in the Fit, I should take a took at the Scion xD, which is very similar. I don't know why I hadn't considered that before.

The xD is just about the same size as my Civic, and has all the same features I was interested in on the Fit. They only had two 5spd models on the lot, and both were older '08 models that the dealer had stuck a bunch of mods on, including wheels, bodykits, springs, etc. That drove the prices up from the $14k starting cost into the $22k range, and apparently they'd had a hard time selling them. The salesman mentioned that they were pretty eager to get these cars off the lot — they'd already been marked down $2,000 because they were last year's models.

One of the cars was bright orange inside and out, which was a bit too flashy for me, but the other was silver, and more subtle, and that one appealed to me. Of course, even with the $2k markdown, $20k is still a good bit out of my price range, and I told him so. Scion has what they call "Pure Price", which means the dealers aren't allowed to mark-up the cars which means there's no haggling — everyone pays the same price. However, these were all dealer-installed accessories, rather than official Scion options, so I asked the guy if there might be any flexibility there. He said there definitely might be.

When we got back, I talked to the sales manager, and told him I was definitely interested, but I needed to go do more research about this car etc, and that I'd probably be back the next day. He asked, "You wanna take the car home for the night?" Well hell. I said, "Sure." The salesman explained that they call this their "puppy dog" test drive, explaining that if you let someone take a puppy home for a day, they're not going to give it back. It worked well for both of us — they could be sure I'd really be back the next day, and I got to see how the car felt to actually live with.

I found that I had mixed feelings about it. Mods like bodykits have always fallen into that category where, although I can appreciate how they look when done well, I'd never spend the money on something that adds nothing but appearance to the car. And although this was relatively subtle, those dual exhausts sticking out through the rear bumper did look very boy racer, and I felt pretty self conscious getting out of the car at a coffee shop, like I should be wearing a backwards visor and wifebeater. The flared sideskirts also made it a little harder to get out of the car, and that big rear bumper would probably mean I couldn't install a tow hitch like I was planning. Still, I did like how it looked, so I figured that if they were really eager enough to sell the car that I could get it for not a whole lot more than a stock '09, it might be worth considering.

But when I brought it back the next day and we started talking numbers, it became clear that they couldn't come down to the range I was looking for. I wanted to end up at 18-19k out the door, and they could bring this down to $19k, but after taxes etc it was up around $22k again. I didn't feel too bad giving up on it, and as I told him to start looking for stock ones, I started feeling a lot better about that decision. This way I could get a car that didn't start off with a year's worth of depreciation, didn't look so showy, could have a tow hitch installed, and I could put just the options I wanted on it, which aren't many.

Scion has a "Build Your Scion" feature on their site where you can put together the combination of color and options that you want and see the total cost. I'd been playing with that the night before, and decided that if I didn't get this silver car, what I'd really like was a dark blue one with no options other than the 16" alloy wheels. Specifically, I had a definite preference for the basic stereo over the $390 "premium" stereo that the silver car had — both the basic and premium stereos are made by Pioneer, and they go out of their way to make it clear that the premium stereo has no additional capabilities or sound quality, and all it adds is a color display that can play videos and pictures in the background. I prefer the simple control layout of the basic stereo. Aside from that, most of the other options available are unnecessary stuff like big wheels and lowering springs.

The sales guy went to check what manual tranny xD's were available at nearby dealerships, and it turned out that one dealer had more or less exactly what I was looking for — a dark blue model with only two options: alloy wheels and floor mats. I'd probably pass on the floor mats if I had the option, since they cost $155, but I suppose on this scale, that's a minor issue. With those options, this car cost about $15,500, which put it at $18,400 out the door. Perfect. I told him I wanted that car, and put down a deposit on it.

The car would be ready on Thursday morning, so today I worked on getting rid of the Buick. I put the stock radio back in it, emptied all of my stuff out, and washed and vacuumed it. I'd been meaning to take pictures and put it up on CraigsList, but I actually felt bad about selling it to someone who was going to try to use it as their primary form of transportation, because I absolutely knew it was going to die on them. In fact, as I tried to head to the car wash, the car died just turning out of my driveway, though I was able to get it started again.

Last night some friends had told me about CarMax, and how they claim they'll buy your car no matter what. I decided to limp it over to them and see what they'd give me for it. I'd previously checked to see what the car would be worth if I sold it to be crushed as scrap steel, and I could get about $225 for it that way. So I more or less decided that anything more than that was fair game, though I kind of expected them to offer something in that range. They gave it a thorough inspection and offered me $500 for it — it didn't take much thinking to accept the offer.

It's funny — I think I'm actually more excited about having that terrible terrible Buick out of my life than I am about the new car I'm getting tomorrow morning. But it's nice to have both.

So with the arrival of the xD, I'll finally have one car that fulfills all my needs. It's small and fun to drive and gets 28/33 mpg, can carry more cargo than my Civic, and with a/c and cruise control, it'll easily carry four or five people in comfort to faraway lands. I plan to keep the Civic insured and registered for another month or two just in case, but after that I may take it off the road. I definitely don't plan to get rid of it — just like my old cow-spotted Civic, it's worth so little, and does its job so well, that it makes no sense to sell it. Better to keep it tucked away as a backup car in case the Scion ever breaks (though it'd god damn better not).