Early Week Match-Up: Car for J

12

Mixing things up this Monday morning, we’ve got an Early Week Match-Up for you this morning, bought to you buy Kaibeezy.  His conversation follows:

J > I need help. Gotta buy a car. Want one [my 15-yr-old daughter] will want to ride in.

K > Ugh – cars suck – what’s wrong with your van? [ Did I say “cars suck”? What I meant was: For people who are not car people and would never do any work themselves, not even changing a wiper blade or checking the oil, buying used cars can seem treacherous and frustrating. So they ask their “car guy” friend, who gives them great advice, which they completely ignore, but now having a bit of confidence go buy something they “love”, which has just emerged from warranty but still seems new enough that the seller thinks it’s “worth something” and the buyer thinks it’s “pretty new”, so that when an $800 ECU blows out six weeks later, they come back to you, pissed off because you told them to buy a good used car. Those cars suck. ]

J > Sold it [ Perfectly functional Hondoyota. He just moved from Calizona to Indihio or Tennetucky or one of those places. ]

K > Ah – I see – what’s your price range?

J > Thinking about $15k. But flexible.

K > Oof – that’s too much

J > Is it?

K > What’s your time frame?

J > I have a rental for now.

K > Hm – I can get you emergency recommendations from a panel of experts in 24 hours, although Monday would be better

J > Monday is fine! She likes the retro remakes of muscle cars. Challenger for example.

K > Leave it to me – but I’ll say $5000 makes more sense – counterintuitive, but go with me on it

J > I would love that! Even $8k or so.

K > Any other input you can give? Automatic or manual? Vintage or modern? How much will you be driving?

J > Prefer automatic. Either. Around town. I don’t drive to work. Not a lot of driving. Dependable

K > How do you feel about trucks?

J > [replied with the green zombie hand thumbs-up]

K > Ooh, how about an El Camino? [ Bap! Idea popped into my head right there, fully formed. And not just any EC, but specifically the squared-off last/5th-gen/78-87 version when they switched it from Chevelle- to Malibu-derived. In sparkly GM light blue with white stripes. ]

J > Yeah baby! Mojo! [ Cheeses, do people really say “mojo”? ]

K > Like this: [ http://www.collectorcarads.com/Picture1/CAM008041.jpg ]

J > Sweet!

[ Then silence. He’s gone down the rabbit hole. A few minutes later… ]

J > Hey, what about this?

[ https://goo.gl/images/14hVzh ]

K > No. Just no. That’s too far.

J > Or this! Hell yeah!

[ https://goo.gl/images/oRmi9W ]

K > No. That’s a concept car. Not in production.

[ Silence. 20 minutes later… ]

J > Volvo C30?

K > Whaaaaaat?

[ What’s going on here? A guy who really doesn’t think about cars very often, then you show him a cool one, and he goes all kid-in-a-candy-store. Srsly, how do you even go from wicked El Camino to Volvo C30? Can someone do a 6-degrees of Kevin Bacon on that one? ]

K > Go read DailyTurismo.com – flip back through at random – they are friends, and I help with the site – lots of great info and ideas, smart commenters [ Reaches for more N20. ]

J > Wilco!