About a year ago, my wife and I sold our 1997 Honda Civic and replaced it with a 2007 Saturn Vue. Over the last year we’ve managed to put 24,000 glorious miles on it, and, considering that driving in California is about as pleasant as cleaning a cat litter box (not that I do a lot of that, you understand; I prefer not to projectile vomit), we’ve really enjoyed it. Smooth, reliable, steady, not bad on the fuel consumption; generally an excellent vehicle.
Our second car for the last year has, obviously, been what was our first car before the Vue entered our lives; a 2002 Honda Civic EX. Considering the 5 trouble free years of service the Civic had faithfully provided during its stint as vehicle numero uno, perhaps retrospectively speaking I should have felt a little cruel, demoting it harshly and suddenly to the status of ’second car’. While I’m sure the car was incapable of cognitive thought and emotive feeling, it just seems like a cold blooded thing to do.
I digress.
That 2002 Civic was a faithful servant. Yes; was. I use past tense deliberately. You see, yesterday, 2002 Honda Civic EX parted ways with our family, to sit on a used car forecourt somewhere until a new owner decided to adopt it.
A few weeks ago Rhonda and I were discussing that, at nearly 90,000 miles, it was time to decide what to do with the car; run it in to the ground, knowing full well that a properly maintained Honda will easily run 200,000 miles, or take advantage of it’s current resale value and trade it in against something with fewer miles on the clock and fewer years on the birth certificate.
I wish to digress once more here.
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted a BMW. I remember when I was playing outside my house on my BMX when I was something like 6 or 7 years old and seeing a brand new Bimmer drive down the road. I got suckered in by the complete awesomeness of that car, and I’ve wanted one ever since.
Take the frown off your face. I didn’t buy a BMW.
But I nearly did.
A few weeks ago, the missus and I were driving home and passed a used car place. Being the safe and conscientious driver that never takes my eyes off the road, never drives and texts, and never drives while holding a cellphone (uh huh), I had my eyes on the road.
“Did you see that?” Rhonda said.
“No. I had my eyes on the road because I’m a safe and conscientious driver that never does anything remotely distracting whatsoever, nor do I speed or drive with a lead foot”, I replied, “What did you see?”
“A good looking BMW back at the auto sales place”, came the answer.
Enough said. A couple of days later, I drove by again and saw the beauty for myself. The next day, I test drove it. The day after that, Rhonda test drove it. Then I really thought about it; it wasn’t exactly a youthful car (although it was just gorgeous), and BMWs aren’t exactly known for their low fuel and insurance costs.
So I nixed that one before I decided that trading a Civic for a 530i was a good idea.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Beemer episode launched further discussion about what we might like if we were to replace our dear, beloved Civic. There were some basic elements to observe. We wanted something a little bigger than the Civic, just two or three years old max, and with low low low mileage. There was much looking and surfing and investigizing on cars.com and autotrader.com.
Then on Monday this week I had to take the Vue to the Saturn dealer where I purchased it for it’s 24,000 mile service. Since I got the day wrong (and it was actually Tuesday that the Vue was booked in for service), I decided to take a look around while I was there. Sitting on the forecourt was a used Saturn Aura, a year old, 18k on the clock, in immaculate condition. I emailed Rhonda when I got back to my office and said ‘let’s take a look at it’.
Well yesterday I went back with the Vue (because that was the day I actually should have been there). The Aura had been sold. Bugger. But, in it’s place, was a brand new Aura that had it’s price slashed.
Rhonda and I returned last night to take it for a test drive. The decision was easy; we had to find it within us to be cold and heartless towards our loyal Civic once more so we could offer a loving home to a new 2008 Saturn Aura XE. A few hours later, we bid fare thee well to the Honda, and left in a new car. God bless ‘Red Tag Events’, trade-ins, and 0% financing.
For those of you in the UK, the Aura is the rebranded, North American version of the Vauxhall Vectra. When Rhonda and I were in England about a year and a half ago, we got one of these from Enterprise while we were there, and we loved it. There are some updates and changes, but the chassis is the same and the body styling is very similar.
So anyway, here she is, in all her 2.4L, 180HP, automatic transmission glory. And the colour is not ‘black’. Its ‘Carbon Flash’. So there.
March 29th, 2008 by 
James 
1 Comment »
