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Declassified Vehicles |
In early 2002, word slipped out to my sister Alicia that Cathey and I were considering trading in our PT Cruiser for a Chevrolet Avalanche. We subsequently denied this for security reasons, as we were perfectly content to continue driving the PT Cruiser for the next four or five years. It was itself a practical car and an enjoyable one, and we had no reason to part with a vehicle that still had almost four years left of its car note. Cathey did eventually want to get something with larger armor, something that could push its way through Houston traffic. We were briefly impressed by the Hummer fad, though their armor and aggressiveness clearly overshot practicality and reached a point of diminishing return. Besides, they were very utilitarian, and after two trips to Las Vegas, we were becoming both increasingly luxury-minded.
We both agreed that the Avalanche is ugly. But, we kept looking at it. It was awarded Truck of the Year by Car and Driver, and they admitted its ugliness. I even took it upon myself to test drive one, and the dealer admitted they were ugly. But, they could haul furniture, seat six comfortably, and you could transform them from an SUV that looked like a giant pickup to a pickup that looked a little like an SUV. That last one might not have seemed like a selling point at first; Cathey didn't generally care much for pickups, and I outright avoided them. Because of their ecological problems, we were the same way about SUVs, especially since I hated being in the car right behind them, unable to see around. But, we kept looking at the thing off and on over the next two years anyway.
Ironically, it was finances that ultimately motivated us almost two years later to do just what I had told Alicia we had in mind. Our accountants urged us to consider taking advantage of a bizarre tax law. Specifically, a small business owner could write off from business profits $25,000 worth of the cost of a new vehicle--but only if it's a really big one. The Chevy Avalanche qualified. And, with a tremendous amount of paper profit showing up on our books, along with a shortage of real money, the painfully counterintuitive decision was made to balance the books by buying a huge truck.
As my residency came to a close, the Hyundai Accent, code-named Labrat, was accumulating miles and starting to show signs of problems. Under Cathey's recommendations, I decided to make a pre-emptive decision to find a new vehicle to serve as a successor. However, what I wanted was an oxymoron--a practical sports car. I had looked at the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, but neither had the sporty aspects I wanted. In spite of the mechanical problems my family faced with a Pontiac Firebird, I would have considered one none-the-less, were it not for the fact that Pontiac saw to it to discontinue the line. The lead contender for awhile was the Dodge Intrepid.
Then, in late April of 2002, when bringing Labrat in for routine maintainance, Cathey and I both noticed at the same time a bright red sports car at a nearby Toyota dealership. In all my reading, I had not noticed the Celica. But, we promptly researched it in Consumer Reports and confirmed it to be a surprisingly practical vehicle for one with such a large spoiler in the back. I was ready to buy it from that dealership, but they played too many cartoonish dealership games. At one point, the dealers even tried to urge us to buy it before a pair of girls who were test-driving took it. The girls were obviously wearing dealership logo tags.
And so, the red Celica did not happen, but I soon afterwards decided to approach my accountant with the plans and features of a custom-built Celica from Toyota's web site, in response to his suggestion that he knew a dealership that could find a close match at near-invoice price. However, I soon learned that his dealership was the same one. At the time we were moving out of the Beaumont area to Pasadena, and thus I went to a dealership in Houston, daring them to make a competative offer. And thus, this car was found in July 2002.
At the time of this writing, the car is due for its 35,000 mile maintainance, less than two years later. Toyota's track record for long-term reliability was an important deciding factor, considering my hour and a half commute to my ER job. This car is also, however, fun to drive. Though its engine has four cylenders, it responds like a V6, and it is very manouverable. The moonroof offers an enhanced view, and the addition of a third party mp3 player allows me to carry large volumes of music, fitting ten hours on a single CD. It's a great car to take to A-Kon; it's Japanese design looks straight out of Anime.