So, we've been talking about replacing it with something even more fun... How about a classic cruiser from the fifties? Yeah, baby! That would be tooo cooool... BUT, they just do not fit the budget or our lifestyle. Sure, I can do an oil change, change all the filters and spark plugs, heck, I have even replaced a distributor and done the points-gap setup - but I ain't even a shade-tree mechanic. Besides that, the price on these classics are sky-high, and even cars from the late sixties have long ago hit their rock-bottom value and have climbed back up and out of reach. I've shown Bon a string of seventies cars that I think could be great hot-rod cruisers, but she can't visualize them as anything but po' folks daily-driver door-slammers. And, there's the continued reliability and maintenance issues.

WINTER 2006/SPRING 2007: One sunny afternoon, at one of the many little "unaffiliated" used car lots that are scattered along the way home from town, there sat a little red Mazda Miata. It turned my head as we drove by, and after seeing it there for a week, Bon and I finally stopped in, just to ask about it. Turns out it was a 1991 model, with the mileage you'd expect on a car that old (185k), and they only wanted about $3,500 for it. Gosh, we could almost just put that one on a credit card and drive it home... And, that set this all in motion.

Let's face it, spring was in the air, the credit cards are almost paid off (mostly), and I'm just getting the itchies for a new ride...
A wise man once said, give a thing a name, and it will happen. As it turns out, he was right.

Side notes that effect outcome of this tale:

1.) As I near retirement, one of my long-term life-plans was to purchase ONE LAST NEW/NICE CAR, on a schedule so that it would be paid off just before I retire. Heck, I'd better bust a move, because retirement IS looming in the distance!

2.) My daily driver, a '98 Chevy Cavalier, has an air-conditioning issue/leak that they just can't seem to find or fix. I've dumped almost $1500 over the past couple of years into that issue, and the longest they've got it to work for was six months.

3.) We have a wedding in Vegas to attend in the middle of May, and nobody in their right mind would make that drive with an air-conditioner that was on the fritz...

And now, back to the sports car fantasy...

Truth be told, the ONE car that I have ALWAYS wanted, ever since they first came out, was an early-ninties Nissan 300ZX. The body style recalls (to me) the image of the famed Ford GT-40, which I consider one of the all-time GREAT cars. I just think they look cool, and I had a 260Z back in the day and found it to be an exceptional car. The problem with the "dream Z" is, age and mileage. Bon is just afraid I'm gonna be trading the Eldorado rathole for a 300ZX rathole that we'll never trust to drive anywhere, and that it will wind up sitting in the driveway, with its main function being to make money disappear. Sadly, I must admit to myself that there is great potential for exactly that scenario. Oh well...

Inspired by the availabilty of the little Miata (and as a compromise for Bon), I start looking at other potenial "weekend fun cars." The original body-style Miatas ('89 through '98) now topped the list, but Bon remained a bit skeptical about the reliability of cars at the age and mileage of even those, and soon we had gone from a seemingly affordable early ninties model with 100k+ mileage to looking at some not-so-used late ninties and even twenty-first century models with 60k mileage or so... And, the budget expectations have risen proportionally.

APRIL 2007: After a few months of scouring the local freebee cars-for-sale rags, Autotrader.com, and a few stops at the odd-unaffiliated lot to check out a car or two, I decide that we should have a big Saturday outting to really check out what's what, and I print out a list of possibilites - cars to go see/drive. The rationalle for doing this at this time is that we might potentially find a car for the impending Vegas cruise... I'm still in shopping mode, but I have the impression that Bon is convinced we will come home with something, or at least some kind of a firm commitment. She ponders what it will take for me to actually make a deal - I tell her I'll know THE DEAL when it bites me in the @ss, it'll be so good.

We started out at the TOP of our list, checking out an '04 Nissan 350ZX, 65K mileage, for about $20K. It's that lovely silver/gray color, and it looks like a friggin' bullet in motion while it's just sitting there. Oooo, I really WANT to LIKE this car... We take it for a test drive, which Bon enjoys immensely (has to have a smoke-break afterwards), but the operation of the power windows baffles me, and my impression of driving it is like we are sitting in an armoured car, looking out the machine gun slits in a turret. My view is so restricted that sitting at an intersection, I can't even see the dang traffic light. And, the seat is a bit too narrow, the lumbar supports are poking me in the kidneys. Gee, nice car, but... I think it's just more than I want to pay for what something that's just not quite "IT"...

We cruised around a bit and checked out a few more car lots, then found the next car up for a test drive - a lovely little '02 Miata. Beautiful car in black, a color which Bon has been very negative on, but this one was presented so nicely that it won her over. We get in it, with the top up - and my head rubs on the top. Oh well, we put the top down - and now my head is out in the wind, like I'm on a motorcycle. Banged my elbow when I shut the door, too. Looks like the newer (post-1999) body-style Miata is just TOO SMALL for me! I imagine that it looks like a circus prop, with my goofy head just sticking up out of it like some giant clown driving a kiddie car. And, that revelation wipes out about three-fouths of the list of cars we were going to look at. D'oh!

We stop at another place to see a Toyota MR2 Spyder, but it's been moved down to the big tent sale at the stadium. They tell us where to go and who to talk to, but we wind up just going home from there, a tad discouraged. Bon, I think, really expected that we'd be coming home with a Miata. But I am beginning to think that the lack of six-foot, three-hundred pound Asians, buying sporty cars in the far east, is going to make it hard for me to find a car built there that will comfortably fit me.

Back home and on the computer, now armed with the knowledge that I must eliminate the Miatas, I expand the model search to include a few makes and models that previously weren't at the top of my list.

Hmmmm, a Chrysler Crossfire...? Well, that's really more of a luxury sports car, isn't it? Yeah, and it's mostly Mercedes, a classy little two-seater with ALL the amenties. STARTING at over $35k new for a base model, I figured a used one would still be way out of the max price range when we started looking - but, now that I am checking them out, I see that there are a few that actually fall right in line with our budgetary and other concerns.

There's a nice one listed on Autotrader.com at an unaffiliated lot in the north end of Chula Vista, so we head back out. No joy when we get there, it's already gone, but we decide to just extend the trip a little, cruising the Mile of Cars in National City, checking out the dealer lots as we drive by - but nothing grabs us. We make a stop at McCune Jeep/Chrysler, just to inquire about the Crossfire models in general, only to be informed that they have been discontinued from the Chrysler line, and that 2007 was their last year of production. Well! We head for home again, and are pretty much resolved that this is NOT the day for the new weekend cruiser.

After dinner, I pick up the Saturday paper, and on the first page of the classifieds ads car section (always expanded on Saturdays), there's a huge new car ad from Midway Jeep/Chrysler. Then, in a small box on the last row of a dozen or so used cars they list at the bottom of the ad, I see that they have a Crossfire listed. Not just a used car, it's a Chrysler "certified" car, and at a Chrysler dealer. We call to confirm they still have it, fire up the Eldorado (for what I had perhaps begun to think actually may have been our last drive in it), and head for Mission Valley.

It's dark when we get there, and they have to send someone to get the car and bring it out for our inspection. When it rolls up, it seems like Bon's eyes almost pop out of her head. I think this may just be the first time she has ever really SEEN one of these in person, and she seems absolutely floored. It IS an neat-looking little car...

This one is a lease return, an '04 with 35K miles on it, and the exterior seems perfect. There are a few signs of wear in the interior, but just little everyday things. The biggie for us is that they're offering the 8-year/80K mile warranty on the powertrain, which completely addresses Bon's reliability and maintenance worries.

We get in for a test drive, and as we buckle up, we just look at each other - WOW! It SEEMS as though there's as much room in this car as there was in the front seat of the Cadillac! Nothing "too small" about this puppy. Drives like a dream - it has the 5-speed autostick, so you can just put it in drive (Bon can drive it!) like an automatic, or play the tranny like a 5-speed clutchless with the sequencial shifter. It is just waaaaay cool. And, it has dual-control air conditioning!

In a New York minute, we were sold on it. It was bye-bye, Eldo - Hello, Crossfire!

Yeah, OK, it's a bit of a budget-cruncher - but this spiffy little hotrod fills two bills, as it will not only be a fabulous fun and fancy weekend cruiser, but it will also be the last car we will ever buy. Heck, it's practically an instant classic - they didn't make many, and now they don't make ANY!