(no subject)

[stormdog]

Today, the first day that's provided me with weather that actually lets me work outside in conjunction with time that lets me take advantage of it, is a day of Spring cleaning, organization and renewal. I suppose that, in light of that, it's a very appropriate day for me to write about the new-to-me car I bought yesterday.

I did, in the end, end up going with Carmax and buying the Aveo. I got a really good insurance quote from Unitrin and have prepurchased a policy to begin at the beginning of next month. I'm going to cancel my current insurance effective the same day (a month before it was set to expire) when I call on Monday (the person I talked to on the weekend couldn't cancel my policy). I do have the new car on the current policy until its end, at which point everything switches over to Unitrin.

Obviously, this means that my truck is no longer insured. It is still, for the most part, drivable, though I'd forgotten how loud it is after the accident until I drove it up into the freshly-swept part of the driveway past our fence gate to make room for the Aveo. Still, at this point, I don't think I'm going to have much use for it. Admittedly, it's handy to have a pickup truck to haul things around in from time to time, but I've been amazed at how much room the Aveo has once I fold down and flip up the backseats. It's huge back there! It should be up to ninety percent of my needs, if not more. So, I think it's finally time to say goodbye to the little red trucklet (not to be confused with my first vehicle, Clif-ford the Big Red Truck.

The trucklet had a good run. Despite my best intentions though, she never quite made it to the 400,000 mile mark. (No, neither the fuel gauge nor the tachometer actually work.)
As you know, I was continuing to drive the trucklet despite the fact that the transmission was fubarred in such a way that it started in 2nd gear and then jumped right over third and into overdrive (except when it started in first and refused to budge without downshifting to number 2 and back up). However, being struck at that intersection in that last snow storm has really been the last straw.
It doesn't look too bad from the left side, though you can see that the impact totally dislodged the bed cover (I had to keep stopping on the way home that night to push it back in place).
But from the right side you can see where the majority of the damage occurred. The tailgate actually still works pretty well, but the exhaust system is broken somewhere and is about four times as loud as before. I'm sure that it wouldn't pass emissions at this point (it's due for plate renewal soon), and fixing it with all the other problems just doesn't make sense.
So, the trucklet is probably going to go off to the land of Craig's List once I clean it out and dig up the title. Hopefully someone else will find a use for her, or her components. Farewell trucklet! You were a good vehicle, and certainly gave me my money's worth.
And, as I noted, I am now the proud owner of the first vehicle I've ever had with less than 200,000 miles on it (and boy does that feel weird!). A 2004 Daewoo Kalos Chevrolet Aveo.

I'm pretty happy with it. It's a little bitty car with a big inside. The backseats fold down and flip up flat against the backs of the front seats to give me a surprisingly large amount of room back there. It's more than enough to be a traveling dog den, or to hold six to twelve decent sized boxes of old computer hardware.

I have a feeling the back seats on this car are basically going to be permanently folded up unless I have more than one other person with me, which is not a frequent occurrence these days. I'm really happy with the room I have in it and with the car in general, which is good since I'm going to be paying for it for three to five years. Ouch!

There is even more newness happening today. We have a new cat for one. But I need to get back and do cleaning while the cleaning is good. More on that subject later.

Thanks for listening!