We're at the point now in our car shopping that we're heading out to do the test-drives as soon as we can. We got the loan for $20,000 but frankly we can't afford the monthly payments on that much of a loan. I did some math and we can manage at the most $18,500 so that's become or top limit for the final purchase price, including delivery taxes and everything else.

(Totally off topic -- I have some seriously weird stuff in my iTunes playlist that I have no idea how they got there.)

Anyway, playing around with the taxes and the approximate delivery fee we're looking at roughly $15,000 available for a car. Means my highly desired automatic transmission is out if we want to buy new at all. Fine, I know how to drive manual; I just don't like it. I'll survive. Means we have no room for air-conditioning or power locks or anything else people think we need. Enh.

So within that budget we can afford to buy in new cars (All 4-door sedans. I want 4 doors more than I want auto transmission.):

The Chevrolet Aveo
The Hyundai Accent
The Toyota Echo
The Saturn Ion.1

The Ion was the biggest surprise. We figured anything from Saturn would be completely out of our budget. We already knew about the Accent and the Echo from last year's trip out to visit various dealerships. The Aveo was something new that we blanked on last year. So four cars within our budget... it helps as a boil down for us. Can't debate what we can't afford to buy, right?

So the next stage is to take the four of them out on test-drives and see what we think and boil it down a bit further. I want to get the majority of the decision-making done away from the dealership and pushy salespeople before we have no choice but to deal with them. I'm both dreading and looking forward to the test drives. I'm excited because it's a serious step. I'm nervous because it's been years since I drove stick and I figure I'm going to stall all over the place. (Even though I've never stalled all over the place driving stick, even when I was learning initially)

One thing that's been fascinating and frustrating about this process is how weird people are about cars. I've actually gotten into arguments about what I want in a car with people other than Mike. Mike and I are the ones going into debt, paying for it and driving this car but you'd think we weren't by the force of some of the arguments. We need air conditioning. We're "fucking stupid" because we're buying new. I should consider Kia, even though I've stated clearly there's no way in hell. Apparently Mike's been hearing about what we should buy from co-workers too.

It's so weird. Why do people care? Is it an extension of the car culture? That the idea of a car being an extension of the self is so pervasive that what the car your friends own says something about you? Frankly for us it's a means to an end. It's convenience, mobility and a measure of freedom. I don't much care what we end up with as long as it's comfortable, reliable and you know, moves. It sure as hell isn't an extension of my self.

And that's 30 minutes.