OK, I’ve gotten over the great crazy mom moment I had last week. Whew. Now I am comfortable I can do this and survive.

Now onto bigger things. Looking for a new car! Yes, it is that time of life, when I have almost reached the limit of my Ford Contour and it’s electrical system. Note to readers: I have never owned a Ford that can survive longer than 7 years without an electrical problem. 6 years, ok, 7 years, things get iffy, pass the 7 year birthday, forget it. So this weekend, I took 2 cars for a test drive. I had been very interested in a Prius. But the benefits are not so great. First, I will not recoup the extra money spent on the synergy drive for several years and more importantly, most companies are taking advantage of more hybrids on the road so they can sell more gas guzzlers. I read a very interesting article on this and how the hybrid is becoming an image thing. And yes, I can’t justify the cool factor. Too bad, I can’t justify the extra $5K.

So, I am looking at the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry. Manual transmission, of course. This often throws the sales person. A woman? Who wants a manual? Honey, wouldn’t you prefer this nice automatic transmission? Nope, not me. I LOVE standards. Really! My dad had a standard when I learned how to drive. Once I had my license, he took me out and taught me how to drive it. I loved it. The control! The power! The ability to accelerate quickly from that asshole at the stop light (whoops, alter ego coming out here). The ability to shift easily on a patch of ice and regain traction. Ah!

I went to Honda first, because I KNEW I didn’t really want the Accord. I mean, it’s a Honda. We are a Toyota family. Dr. Jay’s parents have had a Camry since forever. We have a Rav4. I want the Camry, I am going to get it. But I should drive the Accord just in case. The guys there were great. I called to check if they had one I could drive. A friend of mine has the Passat, and while it is one nice car, I have trouble clutching in it (might have to do with being 5ft3). But since I often enjoy drive on 128, aka the parking lot, I need to be able to clutch in stop and go traffic in comfort. I fell in love with it. Really. It was a smooth as butter. I could handle corners with ease. I went to a parking lot and screwed with the handling and the braking. I was able to park in a very tight spot easily. I loved the space in the backseat and I enjoyed how large and comfy the front felt.

Then I went to Toyota. I wanted to drive these puppies back to back to get a good comparison. First, the guy treated me like the chauvinistic pig he was. "Are you sure you want a manual transmission?" actually came out of his mouth. No,dumbas$, I thought I would test drive a car that I would never actually consider, OF COURSE I WANT A MANUAL! Then he went on to tell me how difficult they can be. I almost left. But instead I did the test drive.

For some reason, he insisted on coming along. I hate that. Just photocopy my license and let me go alone. I couldn’t get the seat in a good spot to clutch. Every time I clutched, I would whack my knee into the steering column. If I got far enough so I didn’t hit my knee, then the seat was too far back and I couldn’t depress the clutch all of the way. The sales guy kept wanting to show me what route to take. I wanted to ignore him because I knew what I wanted to test the car for. I had a series of hilly roads I wanted to take and when I started to drive there, he got all worried. Hello? How can I tell if the car will work for me if I drive it straight and level? I actually told him that and he said "most women don’t like hills" WTF?

Ok, I finished the test drive, got myself some Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and thought.

I really really like the Accord. The down side is that it is more expensive than the Camry. Not by much, but just enough. The Camry was really disappointing to me. I plan on keeping this next car for 8-10 years, so I want one that I will be comfortable with.

Now I need to find out when Honda offers financing deals…