I now have a car! My first car ever. A dark green 2000 Honda Accord. I picked it up on Thursday from the guy who sold it to me, Farry, a USC undergrad business student who has to go back to Indonesia. Farry kept it in an underground lot and had it washed on the outside and inside before he gave it to me. The first night I had it, I kept it outside. The next day, there’s dirt all over it. Plus a bird pooped on the back bumper and two other birds pooped on top of it. So does that mean that at the end of the year, you have 1,000 poop stains? Do the birds know which car is new?
Now that I have my own car, I want to keep it sparkling. I vow that there will be no trash lying around the floor and in various compartments and orifices like in everyone else’s cars. We’ll see how long that lasts. I see these cars that have been ruined by the sun, and I want to put mine in the garage. So I put it in the garage the second night. But it’s a pain to get in and out of there. I might just keep it outside, especially since Nathaniel might want to keep his car in the garage since he just had to pay for the sap to be removed from his car’s roof, and his car is smaller so it’s easier to get in and out of the garage. I guess growing up we never put our cars in the garage and we never cared and they never looked too horrible.
One strange thing is that this Accord has a V6 engine. Does anyone really need six cylinders? It feels a little jerkier than I’m used to after driving my brother’s Scion, which has very little pickup. With a V6, you tap on the gas the tiniest bit and you jerk forward. It feels a little awkward and clumsy while driving through all the stops and starts of residential streets. I feel like I’m going to hit someone. I assume I’ll get used to it. And on the highway or when you’re merging in front of cars, it’s nice to have.
One thing I like is that the car has side airbags — 2000 was the first year they were ever offered on an Accord. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get a used car in my price range with these new head airbags and side curtain airbags but I figured I’d get the best level of safety I could. And my parents have drummed the idea of safety into me since childhood, when my mom wouldn’t let my friends and I double-buckle. Plus, this car buying can drive you nuts on the safety issue – what if I’m cheap and don’t get a car with side airbags and as a result I get seriously injured in an accident? It’s kind of scary. Though I guess my parents are still driving their old 1999 Toyota Avalon with no side airbags. Whenever I talked to anybody about this, they seemed to wonder why I cared about side airbags, or about safety features at all. And on Craigslist, it’s very hard to find cars with side airbags, even though they’ve been optional on many models for many years. I’m not sure why you wouldn’t take the option. This issue reminds me of the issue of buckling your seatbelt in a cab – no one does it, but it seems incredibly stupid not to, especially after this Jon Corzine accident where clearly his not wearing a seatbelt led to more serious injuries.
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