Replacing My Car

As I noted recently, I bought a car in July 1997, and now I need to replace it. Although it only has 102,000 miles on it, the salted roads of New England winters have done their worst, and the right rear frame has rotted to the point that is unadvisable to drive the car on highways, lest the wheel fall off.

Ten years ago, I took $12,000 I had inherited from my mother and put it into certificates of deposit. I intended the money to be available for me to get another car if I ever needed to replace the one I had. The time had arrived, so I cashed in the CD's, which had increased in value to just over $14,000.

In order to trade in my car I needed a certificate of title. When I bought the car in 1997, I took out a loan to cover half of the price, and the bank, as usual, placed a lien on the car. After I paid off the loan nobody released the lien; and the Registry of Motor Vehicles would not issue me a copy of the certificate until the lien was released. It took a while to get the release and a while longer to get the title. Finally, last Friday, I had the certificate, and on Tuesday, October 23, I had time to go to the dealer and get a car.

My idea was to get something which I could pay for with the $14,000 from my CD's. That would have to be a used car. So I went to the website for used cars at the dealership where I had bought my old car and found several cars that looked good. Then I headed to the dealership. As I drove through the lot, I came to a point where I had to go left or right, and I went right, which took me to the new car showroom. Left would have brought me to the used car department, but when I made my choice, I had thought that used cars would also be handled by the area to my right.

A salesman greeted me , and I showed him a picture of a car I was interested in. He told me that he could lease me a new Corolla for less than twice what that used car would cost. He started fast talking with figures about down payment, monthly payments, and cost to purchase the car at the end of the lease I finally got him to stop and calculated the total cost and came up with a number that was within my limit of $14,000. So I agreed to the deal. Then, when I was doing the credit application, I realized that the payments would actually be more than I had thought. I had miscalculated the lease payments, and there were other costs I had not been aware of. But at that point I didn't realize how badly off my numbers were, and I decided to go through with the deal. A new car would cast me only a few thousand dollars than I had been prepared to pay for an old one.

Today, I did a precise calculation, and it turns out that I'll need to save about $9,000 in order to buy the vehicle at the end of the three year lease. This will require considerable self-discipline — cutting back on expenses for food and beverages (less beer, cheaper food and wines, careful menu planning, fewer impulse purchases), not buying books whenever they look interesting, eating at restaurants even less than I do now, going to fewer concerts. I don't want to reduce my charitable contributions, and expenses for utilities and home maintenance are pretty inflexible. I'm going to have to go to my nephew's wedding in New York in January and give a substantial gift. I hope I won't have to go to Colorado for another cousin's wedding there. Can I save $250 per month? Wish me luck.

Good Samaritans/Muslims(?)

Yesterday, as I was on my way to an appointment with my dentist's cleaning woman (hygienist), my car quit on me. It seemed to be a problem in the fuel line. The engine would start for a split second and then die. I was in the main lane coming into a busy intersection. I turned on my flashers and tried to call AAA. Unfortunately, my cell phone battery had no charge. Meanwhile cars were coming up close behind me, and it took them some time to realize the situation and go around me. I was wondering if my car would be rear-ended before the phone battery was sufficiently charged for me to make the call.

After I had been there a few minutes, two big men with curly black beards and olive skin approached and offered to push my car to the side of the road. After they did so, they invited me to wait in their barber shop, outside of which mu car had stalled. When I told them of the problem with my phone, the cashier in the shop let me borrow her phone. I made the call, and the tow truck arrived in a few minutes. I thanked my Good Samaritans and gave them $20, which they tried to refuse, but I tucked it into the pocket of one of their aprons.

Some sites — reposted by friends on Facebook and people I follow on Twitter — claim that all Muslims hate non-Muslims. It's an absurd idea, which incidents like this disprove. I'm reasonably confident my helpers were Muslim, and nothing compelled them to help me, but they freely chose to do so, possibly even motivated by their religion.

Sequel  I had my car towed to the service station I use. The man who knows how to use the diagnostic computer was out with the flu or something of the sort. The other guy hoped he'd be back today. So once more I used the bus to get to the subway so I could get to Boston that evening, and once more, it was satisfactory.

Today, I got a call from the service station about 12:30 p.m., telling me that my car was ready. It turns out the problem wasn't the fuel delivery system. It needed a tune up: new spark plugs and wires. There was also a mouse nest in the air filter, so the filter had to be replaced. Parts, $146.00, labor 160.00, tax on parts, 9.25; and I'm on my way.

Quotidian Activities

In the past month or so, there have been a few things that may be worth writing home about.


Birthday/Anniversary  My brother's wedding anniversary is also his wife's birthday. I procrastinated on sending gifts until the day before. At that point I e-mailed my brother and asked him to get something for her and something for them and bill me via pay-pal. He cooperated, and it worked out pretty well. I'd have liked to do a next day delivery order on amazon, but the Japanese site is, unsurprisingly, in Japanese, and I don't think they take American credit cards. I recall trying once. I found something by following pictures, but I couldn't complete the transaction. So this was better. Maybe sometime I'll learn to shop early enough.


Taxes  For a long time, I used to file my tax returns early — meaning before noon on the day they were due. This year I filed super early — the evening before the due date — using an on line filing system. Sometimes I've owed the feds some money, but never the state. This year, I owed money to both. I guess I'll have to have them take more out of my IRA when I take my next distribution, or else make estimated tax payments.


Car  I have a 1997 Toyota Camry which has a little over 88,000 miles on it. Last year, the mufflers got holes in them, and it became loud, even getting louder as time went on. Last week, I finally took it to a muffler repair shop, where they also found work that needed to be done on the steering and suspension and on the brakes. They also changed the oil and some other fluids and performed the overdue state safety inspection (which it could not have passed before I replaced the exhaust system). Total price, including sales tax on the parts, was $3,000.07. Of that, something over $1,200 was for labor. Since the car was in the shop about five hours, that means they're getting over $240/hr. Nice work if you can get it. Apparently, the labor costs are set by the company — a large chain — for each job performed, since the invoice gives identical amounts for several of the jobs.

It was a higher price than I had anticipated, but then I've been neglecting things for some time, and if this lets me keep the car on the road for another 17 years, that's less than $200 per year. Besides, I put it on my credit card, so it didn't actually cost me anything.


Restaurant  With the end of the concert season, my season for dining at Scollay Square also comes to an end. So last Friday I told them I probably won't be back until October. Wendy the waitress is my favorite since Seth shifted to bartending, and I was at one of her tables. Before I left, she told me that she might get a job in her field of study, which has to do with sustainability and interior design.Of course I wish her well, but I do like having waiters who, when they realize I'm something of a regular, become friendly. So if she stops working there on Fridays, I'll miss her.

There was a party of three at a nearby table and Wendy told me that they were involved in some sort of convention that was going on in Boston. It turns out it was something called Q Talks. The older man in the party was the pastor of the church where it was mostly happening, Tremont Temple, and his wife and son were with him. Wendy told them something about me, and the pastor came over and introduced himself, and I told him something about myself. I learned that he's been involved in high-level ecumenical dialogue as one of the evangelical representatives who have met with Cardinal Kasper and the Vatican agency for promoting Christian unity. I gather that this year's Q Talks became somewhat controversial in church circles because they had panels on the church and gay people which included some participants who favor gay marriage.

As I was finishing my dinner a couple of nice-looking guys were seated at the table beside me. I heard them discussing what they would have, and they didn't seem to be settling on things, so I recommended the miso glazed salmon, which is my favorite dish on the menu. They both ordered it. Unfortunately, I had to leave for the concert before theirs arrived, so I'm not sure how they liked it. But if they like salmon, it's hard to imagine that they wouldn't have liked it a lot.