October 13, 2003
Meet my new ride, a 2003 Beetle GLS 1.8 Liter Turbo. It's barely used, with 7,000 original-owner miles on it, and still carries enough warranty to make the don't-make-me-look-under-the-hood in me happy.
While shopping, I looked at Volkswagens, Saturns, Hondas, Mitsubishis, and Hyundais, and did casual research on Minis, Suzukis, and Toyotas. Oh, and I drove a Jaguar around for a couple of days in New England. The result of my research: I fell in love with the New Beetle, but balked at the price. I also hated the salespeople at the local VW dealer -- they kept treating me like they were doing me a favor by showing me their cars.
Then, on a lark (I'm not a used-car guy), I popped in to Jimmy's Love Bug in downtown Provo. They sell used VWs and Audis, and when I learned that I could get a genuine VW Warranty on a barely-broken-in 2003 Beetle, and shave about ten big ones off of the new-car price, I ran home to Sandra and started begging.
Long story short... see the picture above. Hopefully, this picture will remain accurate for another decade. I'll start shopping again for a new car for me sometime in 2013, when I'm 45 years old, and I've got two teenage drivers in the house both demanding my sweet bug.
If any of you out there are beetle owners, and have advice for me, I welcome it. I've already started reading up on the fun things that I'm not talented enough to do to my car, and it's been quite entertaining. The two modifications I've made that I'm QUALIFIED to make: I added velcro to the dash so I can mount my MP3 player there, and I bought a silk daisy to put in the vase on the dash. (Yes, there is a vase on the dash. Go figure.)
In other news, I'm running out of those T-shirts you see me wearing. With Las Vegas Comic-Con right around the corner (I'll be there) as well as an upcoming appearance in Orlando at Sci-Fi City (details in the next entry), now is the time to buy shirts. We're breaking even on these things, but money is kind of tight (see the picture above) so when they're gone, they're gone for quite a while.