Today I went out to look at some used cars. I’m debating getting rid of my truck early, and get a car that I’ll like better, so I thought I’d go take a look at what’s out there. I’ve already got a short list of cars that I like, I popped into the appropriate dealerships. The one was okay, no sales dudes came out to see me, but that’s okay, because everything was pretty explanatory. I popped into the other one, and sheesh, talk about annoying! The sales dude came out, which was fine, we chatted for a few minutes, and he gave me some info about the cars. I asked him if we could go take one of them out for a test drive, as I’d never driven one of those ones before. He started hemming and hawing, and said that “because they’re lease returned cars, we have to keep the kilometers down on them.” I looked at him a bit strange for a moment, because these were used cars that I wasn’t going to LEASE, but rather BUY, so what the hell was the problem with that? Then I realized what it was: he didn’t think I was going to buy right then, so he wasn’t even going to bother trying. Okay, I did tell him that I was looking for info because I still had a few months left on my lease (I didn’t tell him the right number of months, because I know this is one thing that turns them off.) But what an ass! I mean, he didn’t even offer me any brochures or even his card so that when I was ready, I’d give him a call. And what kind of an excuse is that to put me off from test driving a used car? I mean, while we were standing there, I saw three used cars from other dealerships going out for drives! It’s not like I was asking him if we could put 100 kms on it, I just literally wanted to go around the block. Sheesh.

I love car shopping, but I hate dealing with the salesmen. As a woman, I find they treat me differently, which is annoying, and then there’s always the fact that I always feel like they’re trying to screw me, you know? Ugh, next time I’m taking one of my male friends with me. I haven’t had to do that in a while, but I suspect I’m going to have to, as the dudes here in T.O. are little different. *sigh*

Wow, the price of gasoline really dropped off last night/this morning, with it hovering around the 97 cent mark, which we haven’t seen since March of this year. Of course some cynics are scoffing that “we shouldn’t be happy for 97 cents!”, but I for one, am happy, since I’m off on a road trip tomorrow, and I needed to fill up anyways. So I only spent $38 on a fill rather than $50! Much, much better. My bank account likes that idea.

No, not because today is Live Earth today, but rather, because it’s starting to smell a bit lemony, if you catch my drift. After the 1 year mark, it started acting up every 3 or 4 months with some sort of problem that may or may not have required me to go to the garage to get it fixed. Now, I’m not that enamoured of the truck anymore because it’s, well, a little too utility in its driving, but not utility enough in its functionality.

By way of being “too utility”, I mean that it drives a little too stifly and bumpy for my taking. I’m not looking for that expensive car handling that makes you feel like you’re being cradled in your favourite baby blanket while being rocked to sleep on a hammock by the seaside, but even just plain old sitting on the couch type of handling. This thing shakes, rattles and rolls when going over bumps, and I’m not that excited about that. But I knew about that when I bought it, as it is an SUV.

As for the “not utility enough”, I mean that it doesn’t have some features that any SUV should have, namely, an all-ready-to-use roof rack. Now my SUV has these black long things running on the roof that I thought was a roof rack, as my father’s old SUV had something similar, and I used it to transport all sorts of things up top. The black thingys on my SUV though, are decoration only. Can you believe that? In order to actually use the roof rack, I would have to buy these factory-only-available cross bars to screw in to the black thingys. This seems utterly ridiculous to me, and if I’d noticed that way back when, I might not have taken the vehicle. For the second item that annoys me, it’s the fact that I can’t tie down the back trunk and let something hang out the back. They actually reversed the position of the latch and clasp, so that you can’t tie down the truck door. I understand that’s so you don’t let exhaust fumes in, but considering we’ve been doing that for years with all our other vehicles, I find it most frustrating that my SUV doesn’t let me.

The latest saga is the Service Engine Soon light that came on the other day. According to the owner’s manual, when it comes on and stays on, it could mean one of two things: 1-the gas cap isn’t securely fastened, or 2-you have an emissions problem and you should take it into the garage soon for service. Considering I had recently filled the gas tank, I figured that was the problem, so I replaced the cap, and went on my merry way. The manual says that if it’s just the gas cap problem, then the light will turn off after a few trips. Well, after about 8 trips and 4 days, the light has finally turned off! Yay. I was actually going to take the truck in for service on Monday as I figured I had problem #2, but no, my truck was just being a pain in the ass. Sheesh.

Once my lease is over next year, or is it the year after? Gawd, I hope not! After the lease is up, I am most definitely NOT going to be keeping this vehicle. No sireebob!

And no, I wasn’t referring to some yarn that wasn’t behaving. I’m talking about the police! I was on my way to work this morning, minding my own business on the highway, when suddenly I noticed an unmarked police car hot on my tail. I mean, there was n-o-b-o-d-y behind me when I checked a few seconds before, and suddenly, *bam*, he was there! So I changed lanes when it was convenient, silently praying he wouldn’t pull me over for speeding (because I was, but then again, so were we all), and he just zoomed on by me. It was then that I noticed a marked police car in another lane, who suddenly pulled out and zipped up to follow the unmarked car. I also was silently hoping they were hot on the trail of a minivan that was driving waaaay too fast for the type of road, but alas, they did not. I know this because I caught up to them at after getting off the highway. Then when I heard the news report at the top of the hour, I suddenly knew where they were going in such a hurry: there had been a shooting in the area where I work last night, allegedly gang-related, and they were turning onto that road this morning. Wonder if there’s been a break in the case? Who knows.

So I was all set to help my friend Mel bring home her new-to-her air hockey table home tomorrow, but I discovered today that I can’t! The table is too long to fit inside my SUV, and I can’t tie down the back door and let it hang out, so I thought of using the roof rack that I thought came with my truck. Only the roof rack I’ve got is just for decoration! I can only use it by attaching some non-included cross bars to the indicated spots on the “rails”. How lame is that?? I’ve got an SUV that I can’t even use like an SUV!! Utterly ridonkulous.