That "New Car" Smell…

Amongst all of our other busy tasks last week, we bought a new car. It had been something that

1925 Model T Ford (Photo credit: Photomatt28)

we’d spoken about, tentatively planned for, and put off doing until the last possible moment, hoping to get my 2001 Ford Ranger through just one more spring and summer.

But some strange and metallic noises from my trusty Ranger’s rear end began a couple of weeks ago, speeding up our decision-making concerning the purchase of a new vehicle. The noises really were no surprise because the possibility of that happening sooner or later was brought to my attention by my friendly oil change person the last couple of times in.

Something called a shackle spring was pretty much rusted through and would need replaced. I am not a mechanically inclined person who can do anything too involved with a truck or car, so it would cost around $300 to have the thing fixed.

But with over 200,000 miles on the truck, we didn’t really want to invest any more money into it, and, instead, we knew it was time to finally make that much-delayed trip to the auto dealer and jump back into the wonderful world of car payments! So that’s exactly what we did last Monday.

We returned to the friendly dealership in a nearby town where we’d purchased Carolyn’s car a couple of years ago. They were pleasant and wonderful to deal with then, and they were as nice and accommodating this time as well. I drove a couple of models, and then we found the one we liked and agreed to purchase it. Two days later, we returned and picked up our brand new 2014 Crystal Red Chevy Equinox LT.

I’ve spent the better part of the last several days trying to figure out all of the “hands free’ technology and what everything is supposed to do and how it’s supposed to be done! I’m certain that what I’m considering tricky and cutting-edge technology has probably been around for at least a year, and pretty much routine for anyone under 50.

Since I’m way past 50, I’m still just a little foggy when it comes to understanding things such as Bluetooth, Pandora, Stitcher, etc. That’s why I abandoned Twitter (twice!) because I couldn’t figure out what a hashtag was supposed to do (still can’t!) and, thus, pay no attention to anything Twitter.

All of that being said, I am enjoying the rather simple way to make a call without having to be holding and clicking things on my iPhone. I can just give the command (if I remember to wait until after the tone, which I never do!) of whom to call and it all comes through the sound system loud and clear.

Besides all of that tech stuff, the car rides beautifully, and the gas mileage is a vast improvement over the dearly departed truck! The seats are comfy, and there’s plenty of room to haul what we need to haul. I’ll really get to put this to the test a week from this Friday when we load it up with cottage “stuff” to move in that weekend.

I’ll miss my old Ranger, but I’m thrilled to have something brand new that will get me hither and yon in style and comfort. Now, if I can just figure out how all of that built-in technology is supposed to work and what it’s supposed to do. Suggestions, anyone?…MLA

Chevrolet Equinox (Photo credit: Seluryar)