my loyal readers might recall that i'm not very satisfied with my car, kaput!, aka das wunderlemon, the brokenmobile, & many other street aliases. you might remember my automotive plights of old, breaking down on the way to work, misdiagnoses by repairmen, late night battery replacement sessions, & more. well, forget about it, because kaput! is gone. i got me a brand new honda civic.

it was inevitable. kaput! hadn't had a full breakdown in more than a year, but that didn't satisfy me. there were too many other problems: burning oil, intermittent brakes, faulty a/c, no rear defrost, not to mention the big dent in the rear bumper. i just couldn't trust that car anymore. it got me to work reliably, & it served me well enough in that regard, but i didn't even try to drive it out of town. it had let me down too many times before to ever get that kind of chance again.

the need for a new car had germinated many months ago. i would've already had my father's old ('98) civic when he got his new pt cruiser, but the credit union didn't want to play ball along with that plan. so when once again kaput!'s brakes started going weak (like they had been before i'd supposedly gotten them fixed not 6 months earlier), i made a conscious decision not to get them fixed. instead, i promised myself, i would buy a new car, & anxiety over the brakes would only inspire me further to get off my ass & do so. it took a few weeks, but finally i kept my promise.

once we got in motion it took no time at all. somehow the subject came up at dinner with mom last wednesday. thursday night dad was home & suddenly after dinner we were off to the car dealerships. we looked at some kias because we were already checking out the toyotas at the toyota/kia dealer, & they really wanted me, with one sales manager actually asking me the archetypal car sales question: "how close are you to making a buying decision?" i wasn't too impressed with the toyota, & only the price & warranty of the kia impressed me all that much (but what good is a 10-year warranty from a company that might not last 5?). we rounded out the evening at a honda a dealer, where i was quite taken with the civic, but not so much with the help we were getting.

the very next night we were at an auto dealers show at that hub of festivity, the indiana state fairgrounds. by that point i had already set my heart on a new civic lx. i even knew the color i wanted & the features i wanted added on. there i met a honda salesman who everyone calls "majik" (his real name is juan, & yes he spells majik that way, i saw it written down). pretty soon we'd made a deal, & the next morning my new car was ready & waiting for me there.

well, it was ready except for the add-on features. it didn't have a cd player yet (does now), & an ashtray is no longer standard on hondas either (an interesting decision, but one that makes sense, i guess). but it was mine, within only a few days of beginning to shop. like mom commented, "it's too easy to buy a car, if you have good credit, or no credit."

it's an exciting time for me now. i'm just starting to get live performance gigs out of town, & now i have a car which i can be proud (& more importantly not afraid) to drive to muncie, urbana, or wherever my superstardom might lead. not only that, but it's a real pimpmobile, a "hoopty rod", & i can use it to pick up chicks. i can just pull up alongside them & say "hey baby" & they'll jump on in. then i can drive them to a motel, because buying this new car means i won't be able to afford to move back out of my parents' house anytime soon.

there'll be a pic up soon, probably before you even get this. note that kaput! never had a pic up on my site: that car never deserved it.