Which Car Should I Buy?

Repairs on the ’98 Neon are approaching it’s value and I can’t rely on it the way I was once able to. It’s been a great car, but I can see the day when it won’t serve us anymore. With that in mind, I’m starting the search for a new vehicle to replace it.

From exploring the car sites, their aren’t many cars that seem like a worthwhile replacement. So, I’m in no hurry and happy to wait until the right car comes along – even if that means another 75k on the Neon.

Things I Care About – in Order

  1. Distinctive exterior.
    Something that demands a love it or hate it reaction. A beige Toyota Camry – um no. I think you need to go to extreme sizes for this – super big or super small. I’m going super small.
  2. Gas mileage greater than 30mpg city.
  3. I can fit comfortably and can see out the windshield.
    In many cars – convertibles, those with sunroofs, anything from Jeep –
  4. Easy to get a car seat in and out of backseat.
    Yes, as of next year, we’ll be back to the bucket car seat.
  5. Reliability
    It’s not uncommon for my car to sit un-driven outside for a week or two in the depth of winter or height of summer. I don’t care. I expect it to start when I turn the key.
  6. Minijack & iPod connectivity
    I actually prefer to not having AM/FM/CD/Satellite capabilities.
  7. Bluetooth phone connectivity.
    Having the phone integrated into the car’s audio system sounds very convenient.
  8. Carbon neutrality.
    Not just the usage, but I’d like the carbon imprint of manufacturing and delivery offset as well.
  9. I could fit a bicycle inside.
    Outside of my laptop gear, and a car seat, a bike is the most likely other thing I’ll be hauling.
  10. In 15 years a new driver might want to drive it.
    Barring a dramatic change fuel infrastructure, the idea of keeping a car that long for the kid to practice driving with is pretty attractive to me.
  11. Built-in garage door opener
    Again, a nice convenience. Makes it far more likely I’ll put the car in the garage.
  12. The fuel it runs on.
    Today, alternative fuels are at the point where using less regular unleaded gas is still more effective.

Things I Don’t Care About – in Order

  1. Color
  2. Engine size
  3. Upholstry and floor mats
  4. Chrome and trim
  5. Wheel sizes and locks
  6. Transmission type

All the ‘build your car’ sites care more about the second list than the first.

Cars I’ve been looking at thus far – Ordered by interest

  1. Scion xD
    Looks like a direct response to the Fit, but with better AV options.
  2. VW Rabbit TDI
    In the comments, Nathan suggested I look into it, so far, I like what I see.
  3. Honda Fit
    I sat in a Fit earlier this week, it feels pretty comfortable. I can see out the windows and the put the seat almost exactly where I want it.
  4. Toyota Yaris Sedan
  5. Nissan Versa
  6. Honda Civic
    It’s a good reliable, reputable car. That doesn’t feel as comfortable as the Fit.
  7. Honda Civic Hybrid
    Trading mileage for trunk space.
  8. Mazda 3 5-Door
    It’s been a very long time since I’ve looked at Ford. Kinda surprised this one is here.
  9. Toyota Prius
    It’s got the distinctive look and the tech gear, but seems kinda boring otherwise.
  10. Cooper Mini
    Trading the inconvenience of a 2-door for still being really cool in 15 years.

Am I missing something from this list?

Note to Chrysler: Despite my long history of Chrysler vehicles and that I feel more comfortable buying a Chrysler than a Ford or GM, you don’t have anything interesting that I haven’t already purchased.

Elsewhere:
Andy Atkinson is also in the market for a new ride, and ran the insurance and mileage numbers for his candidates.

Update 1 Sept 2010
So, I bought a Dodge Grand Caravan

Moderation

In Dave Slusher’s Dog Daze Clambake, Dave digs into his financial strategy. While I appreciate where Dave’s coming from (don’t buy stuff you don’t need) and our savings rate is also in the double digits, he makes a couple of assumptions I completely disagree with:

  1. Retirement, as sold to our grandparents, will exist a decade from now – and later.
    Unlike previous generations, Dave and I make our living from our brains – not our backs. While 40+ years on the factory floor makes a back lamer, the same isn’t true of brains. I’m betting on my brain will be a valuable member of society 40+ years from now in a similar way it is today. Perhaps my perspective will change in a couple decades, but today – I see myself doing something revenue generating when I’m in my 70s not because I have to, but because I want to.This is where Dave and I disagree.Dave and I are talking about the same elephant.
  2. Sacrifice today inherently creates opportunity tomorrow.
    No, I don’t have a video game console or subscribe to cable television. Nor do I have a high quality portable podcast recorder or a dog. I do have a bunch of other gear that makes my life easier, work more enjoyable, and offers me opportunity and experience I wouldn’t have without the gear. Here’s my assumption: having lunch with a colleague is more likely to lead to a new business opportunity than not.

Safari 3.0b Quick Review

Some nice improvements in the Public Beta of the new Safari. A mix of must-haves and nice-to-haves. I’m quite pleased by the following:

  1. Resizeable textareas
  2. Spotlight/Firefox-esque in-page Find
  3. Submit buttons now support CSS

Tolls, Feast, and Central Street

This past weekend was the second scheduled Chicago trip for this summer. Like previous trips, all my frustrations and annoyances with the city back. Immediately. As we sat for 20-minute in a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam behind the 85 cent toll booth at O’Hare.

What a horrible way to introduce visitors to the city. I strongly encourage the State of Illinois Dept of Tourism to sell $20 weekend Illinois Tollway I-Passes on the border. Hell, I strongly encourage the State of Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, and Iowa Depts. of Tourism to sell them. Illinois is damaging their tourist reputation by not making the program visitor-friendly ($50 & “Allow 7 to 10 days for processing and delivery” = not helping).

Sunday, we grabbed a pretty good brunch at Feast with Jon, Carolyn, Tesia, and Erin. As expected, the conversation, Feast’s outside seating, and the breakfast potatoes were delightful. While both the garbage omelet and service showed promise, they were awkwardly hesitant.

On the way out of town, we stopped by our old neighborhood on Evanston’s Central street. All our frustration melted away as we walked the sidewalk in and out of the storefronts. In front of the new independent coffee shop, we bumped in to Larry Maday, manager at the Video Adventure. One of the reason I’m disappointed on Netflix and Amazon recommendations is because of Larry’s ability to know exactly what we’re in the mood for. We chatted a little. Just like we did when we lived 2 block down.

Like we never left.

How To Decide Which Bloggers to Give Press Passes To?

I got a call today from a local organization asking for a list of blogger to extend press passes to. I was familiar with the organization and have a pretty good idea who would dig what they were doing. The criteria they were most interested in was size of readership.

From my email reply:

“In the blog world, who is reading (influence) is far more important than how many are (reach). With that in mind, I highly recommend reviewing the above blogs for the topics and perspectives they cover, and review their ‘Authority’ in Technorati (the number of blogs linking to them, higher is better) and base your invitations on that.”

Would you have recommended a different technique?

Carbon Trading in the US and Minnesota

If you caught the NPR/National Geographic segment on the European carbon trading efforts you may have gotten the impression that:

  1. the price of being carbon neutral is so low (+2%) that it’s irresponsible not to pay it.
  2. a market for carbon dioxide, mandatory or otherwise, didn’t exist stateside.

True on the former, false on the latter. First Crack 102 is a conversation about the Chicago Climate Exchange and the University of Minnesota.

baldguyshow calls it my best show to date.

How to Automatically Link URLs in Rails

Let’s say you have a Rails app and you’d like any URLs in any plain text string to be automatically hyperlinked. Well, then you’ll need this:
.gsub(/((http|https)://[a-z0-9]+([-.]{1}[a-z0-9]+)*.[a-z]{2,5}(([0-9]{1,5})?/.*)?)/, '<a href='1'>1</a>')

For example:
I blog at http://garrickvanburen.com

Through:
"I blog at http://garrickvanburen.com".description.gsub(/((http|https)://[a-z0-9]+([-.]{1}[a-z0-9]+)*.[a-z]{2,5}(([0-9]{1,5})?/.*)?)/, '<a href='1'>1</a>')

Results in:
I blog at http://garrickvanburen.com