So my beloved Barney (my big purple Jeep) finally had to be
sent to greener pastures. We had a good 7 years together until this last March
when he started to stall inexplicably (apparently this is common with 1997
Grand Cherokees and no mechanic can fix it and if you can get to speak to
someone at the dealer they will tell you that they will have to fly someone out
from the factory to maybe fix it- Trust me it’s not pretty!!!!)
Well, what’s a girl to do when that happens – um, be sensible and buy an economical new car, take up a lease or think to herself, “Well, if I am going to take on more debt for a new car, why not get what I want?” Yup, I opted for the latter and got myself a 2006 Mini Cooper!!!! My dream car!!!!! She’s utterly beautiful!!!! Drives like a dream!!! Her gas consumption is AMAZING!!! I was getting 9 miles to the gallon in Barney, in Little Prudence (well at least that’s her name right now and yes it came to me when I was driving her one foggy morning and Siouxsie came on the stereo, by the way her new album is AMAZING!!!!) I am getting 23 miles to the gallon and even with having to fill her up with premium gas, it’s still cheaper than filling up the Jeep!!!!!
It was truly fate how I found her as well. I had been researching and looking for about 3 weeks and then one day we decided to go and test drive some because time was getting near to close the deal. So off we went to Santa Monica and saw a few but they weren’t perfect. Thanks to a major road construction in Culver City, we followed a detour (although I am a Hell-A native I am not that familiar with Culver City) and lo and behold what appeared around the corner but a little red Mini with white stripes and the cincher on the deal – Union Jack mirrors!!!!!
Oh yeah and the nice red and black leather seats as well as the amazing stereo upgrade and moonroof also helped convince me!!!!
So I test drove her and she ran great and then the negotiations started. Hornhead was just there for moral support and he was shocked at how I handled the deal and even wished the sales guy good luck and warned him that I had done my research and he pitied him. LOL!!! So there I went in acting like I could walk away at any second if my insane demands weren’t meant (while inside I was cringing because I wanted the car THAT BAD!). In the end, after many men huddled around and discussed how to get the price down (stupidly, they didn’t think that the little girl with the coloured hair would be paying attention to them when they were saying how much they paid for the car!!!) I managed to walk out of there with a price that was THOUSANDS under the MSRP!!!! I am even still stunned that I did it and Paul commented that he had no idea who the person I became was but he was super impressed….
The only little thing I need to change is I need to get my iPod installed because right now I am having to deal with CDs and let's face it I am spoiled. So once we return from our vacation next month (oh yeah only 3 weeks to go until we hit the UK for 3 1/2 weeks) Little Prudence will be completely perfect! Well almost, if I could have Bill Nighy as my permanent passenger all WOULD be very very right with my world!!!LOL
So, if you are driving around Hell-A and see a girl in a red and white Mini hugging the steering wheel at a stop light, that would be me... Yes, I have turned into a car girl. Who would have ever thunk it?