so long big blue

B had been thinking about replacing Big Blue last October. Then one evening on my way home from work a big SUV made an illegal left-hand turn in a busy intersection spinning me around and totaling my tiny Rav 4. But that's a another story.
We had to quickly replace my '97 Rav with a very pretty maroon and silver '06 Rav. We put a hold on replacing Blue. This October Blue starting wheezing and feeling pain in his right front wheel. He was diagnosed with old age (14 years) and arthritis (aka a slightly bent wheel). We couldn't put it off any longer. B didn't think that Blue would make it through the winter.

B had been researching autos for awhile and thought he would like to buy a hybrid, so we went to the car dealership and test drove a Prius. It's a little off-putting to sit at a light waiting for it to turn green and not hear your car running. Even though the Prius was appealing, a used one was priced almost as much as new one. B had a dollar amount in mind and he didn't want to stray too far.

B pulled together an Excel spreadsheet to analyze his savings among the various cars that held his interest. Elantra, Corolla, Civic and Prius down the side. Price, cost of gas and years to recoup across the top. He called me into his office and explained to me that it would take 6 years to recoup if the cost of gas was $4 per gallon and even if the cost of gas went up to $7 it would still take 4 years. This cemented that we would not be buying a Prius. He decided to buy a less expensive car now and wait for an electric plug-in car to show up on the market in a few more years.

The Saturday morning of Columbus Day weekend we sat out to visit dealerships and test drive a used Civic and a used Elantra he had found on-line. The Civic had a strong dog smell inside and the color was not appealing. B doesn't like white cars and he thought that maybe the reason my car had been involved in the accident was because black cars may be hard to see. Besides he wanted an exciting color like red or bright blue. The Elantra was red and had a lot of bells and whistles. We put a deposit down on Saturday with the intent of continuing to shop throughout the weekend. On Sunday B saw a new listing on-line for a 2007 Corolla. He left a message with the dealership and on Columbus Day he went over to take a look. I called him from work around noon to inquire about the status of his car shopping.
He replied that he was "All done".
I said "Really, when do you pick it up"?
"It's already in the driveway" he responded.
He had driven Blue home then ridden his bicycle back to the dealership, picked up Red and stopped to have the insurance pictures taken. He was all set to drive Red to work on Tuesday.



"You’ll look so cool driving to work in your candy apple red sports car" I told him.
B looked up. "It’s not candy apple red . It’s called impulse pearl red."
"Well then, they certainly got that wrong, didn’t they?" I said with a smile.