Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Our new car

1993 Bonneville. It served us well. Bought used less than a year old.


2006 Mazda 6 GT Wagon. We shut our eyes, paid the bill and brought it home this afternoon.



Paul is currently reading the manual, as he always does, and later he can condense it and teach me how to use the buttons. Between these and the levers on the wheel I just know it's going to be an interesting first few miles with me behind the wheel. I'll probably set off the wipers when I want to signal a lane change or start the air conditioning when I want to change radio stations.

In all the years we had the Bonneville ... 16 ... I never did learn how to change the clock or programme the radio. That's what husbands and sons are for. Right ?

Paul's been thinking replacement the last few years but I had stopped getting excited about it once I realized it had turned into what seemed to be his hobby: go to the car shows, bring home the brochures of vehicles of interest, let them sit for a year or three then go looking for used - spent hours on line looking at used cars - pick up all the used car magazines at the front of the grocery store - pull into car lots just to see what was sitting there.

This spring with the rust getting worse, the undercarriage in bad shape and the front springs and shocks making awful noises he got a little more serious. He did a lot of looking, he narrowed down his list settling on the Mazda 6 wagon and we did some test driving. We found some that were OK but not one that didn't call for some compromises on his list when he wandered over to the mall to a 4 day sale staged by a large dealership and found a 2006 ..year newer than he'd been looking at, in a light colour ..our first pick, light interior ..my favourite, all the bells and whistles including a sun/moon roof and the lowest mileage/km of the bunch. We signed the papers to purchase it the very next day.

Once I feel comfortable driving again I'll head out and see if I can back it out of the garage.

(slightly overcast day so the colour of the cars doesn't show well but they are both gold tones)

6 comments:

Leenie said...

That Mazda GT looks like a winner. Long ago we owned a Mazda with a wankel engine. It was supposed to be the next great thing. It backfired loudly and leaked oil. Yours looks like it will be a long and well loved friend. Good luck backing it out the garage.

Rootietoot said...

Oh that's nice! Plenty of room and all...

Unknown said...

Very nice - Mazda's are good cars.
Does it have that new car smell :)?

jeanie said...

Gorgeous - and noticed you had a colour theme going there.

Have fun. I am a reader of manuals myself.

Kathleen said...

Love it! Have fun learning how to drive it! I'm afraid I'm the manual reader in this house...

Jayne said...

It looks great, Elizabeth, have fun getting to know your new family member :)