LAST CALL: Come On Down
Mithell, Amy K.
LAST CALL AMY K. MITCHELL Come On Down CAN FIX A CAR. RATHER, I KNOW WHAT NEEDS FIXING. Back in the '90s, my cars (note plural) and I became the very best of friends—we had no choice,...
...Not that I would ever invest in a brand I have already owned...
...Found it again...
...Thank goodness for Japan...
...It was nice...
...Time to go new, no more used...
...A manual transmission...
...Back in the '90s, my cars (note plural) and I became the very best of friends—we had no choice, spending lots of time together stranded alongside Interstates in Alabama, California, and New Jersey...
...Only one problem: he's 300 miles away...
...Now if only I could get my fix on a new car as easily...
...This time it's a keeper...
...I have a wonderful mechanic...
...My usual haunts don't include a new car showroom...
...So about three months ago, knowing that my current car was on its last set of wheels, I started doing some field research into the motorcars of the 21st century...
...But reality set in...
...I knew people were behind me, but I couldn't see them...
...It's how much...
...Physically, emotionally, financially, I was on a bumper-car roller-coaster: Thought I'd found it...
...First was icy Sweden, maker of a funny, zippy sedan that's supposedly great in the snow—and it had a clutch...
...82 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 2005 But where...
...Plus driving a Wolfswagen was like sitting in a cockpit...
...All was well, until an astute friend characterized the vehicle as "a mediocre choice in a field of great cars...
...But with one phone call, he warned me that I was being ripped off by a local mechanic who had claimed, just by looking under my car, that my clutch needed replacing...
...To protect the guilty, I'll not name the actual cars I tried on, just the countries of their birth...
...It's got every-thing a girl could want—except a clutch...
...And it had the most wonderful feature any car can have...
...Should've done this last winter...
...Nope...
...So long, Honda...
...It doesn't need a DVD Navigation System with Voice Recognition or a six-disc interchangeable CD player with MP3 capability...
...My non-gas-guzzling 1992 Honda had been great until the 125,000 mile mark...
...But Munich or Stuttgart and their luxury lines were out of my league...
...It has all-wheel-drive, gets good gas mileage, is reliable, safe, and has "toy" in the name...
...Surely you must be joking...
...I took that to mean I should sample Germany...
...Cruel D.C...
...LAST CALL A M Y K . M I T C H E L L Come On Down CAN FIX A CAR...
...In our bountiful car and driver paradise, it seems the slogan "you pay what we pay" has given way to "just buy it, don't test drive it...
...It needs to be reliable and safe, and, if I'm lucky, have air-conditioning that doesn't go on vacation for the summer...
...Which leaves out the best part of car shopping: trying out a very new, very expensive, very fun, very fast car—that's not yours...
...It too offered a clutch and a great lease deal—until I calculated that taxes take all the "great" out of such deals...
...It even came with a great lease deal...
...I don't need fancy—just a simple automobile to convey me to and from Spectator Worldwide Head-quarters (SWH), out to Virginia to seek out cheaper goods, and around what to some is still known as the District of Columbia...
...Actually he's a mechanic-confessor (when not racing his specialty—Ferraris...
...Or so I thought...
...Even in the confines of the pot-holed and traffic-gutted streets of D.C., being able to use the clutch to shift just once between red lights was pure joy...
...By sheer accident I sampled France...
...I have had my fill (so to speak) of radiators, radiator fluid, alternators, head gaskets, brake pads, CV boots, exhaust systems...
...Luckily we always have Wolfsburg...
...It offered the perfect car—what it calls a "truck," even though it is really an SUV...
...summer...
...I'll even let you test drive it...
...But I have been fortunate as well...
...That'll be $895, lady...
...Nope...
...The crook would have had to take the engine apart to figure that out, which he most certainly had not...
...Before I knew it I was bouncing from dealership to dealership to CarMax and back to a whole array of other dealerships...
...If you're in the neighborhood, come by SWH and check it out...
...Faster than you could say Champs d'Elysees I cruised over to the New World—vive le difference...
Vol. 38 • September 2005 • No. 7
