My Next Car

I've been driving a VW Beetle for the past 8 years. It's a pretty great car. Gives me very little trouble, and still going strong with all the abuse I have given it (been wrecked a few times, had to get a new engine once, etc.). I have been planning to run it into the ground. It has about 119K miles right now. And I've spent maybe $400 in repairs in the past 12 months. so it's still a good car. Especially considering I've paid for it in full now and having no car payment is pretty sweet.

HOWEVER, I am now in a unique situation in my life: I'm a commuter. Working in the perimeter of motor city rather neccessitates this: not much in the way of public tran, and the entire infrastructure here is very car-centric (roads named by the mile). I go 52 miles a day round trip to and from work, and probably another 150-200 miles a month for other needs like shopping or trips to Detroit or parks for recreation. So gas, being well over $3 now, is starting to add up as a major expense. People are surprised to hear that my car only gets around 22 miles to the gallon. Yeah. Not good.

So I've been thinking that the cost of gas may equal the cost of a new car if I were to get a very fuel effienct model. I was seeing these tiny little smart cars all over Berlin, and was thinking : why don't we have that in the US? But amazingly I saw one on the street in Ann Arbor this week! Apparently the Smart fortwo is now avaiable in the US, as of January '08!!! These get 40 miles to the gallon and go up to 90 miles an hour. Starting at $11,900.

I can't help but think that these are going to get pretty popular, considering gas prices are expected to surpass $4 a gallon this summer...