Anyone who reads this blog on a fairly regular basis knows that time after time I write about my plan to buy a new rifle soon, in fact I'd like to buy two or three of them that I have in mind and a shotgun too. Then there is that reloading equipment that I have been studying for several months now. I will buy the reloading equipment fairly soon but am still not too sure when I will be getting that new rifle for my collection. When it comes to the reloading stuff, well - I was given a gift back on Christmas (or was it my birthday last year, yeah I think it was then) to buy a reloading kit. So that money is kind of set aside. I was also able to save up about 4 grand in recent months - and all that money went into the bank too. So what is keeping me from buying a gun.
Well, I sot of made a promise to my son that I would buy a new car this year. Our 1996 Ford Taurus has seen better days. It is in no way on its last legs but is is very old and requires a new minor repair about every 6 months or so and sooner or later (probably sooner) it will need some form of major repair. The time is right for a replacement. So last week we went out again, one of several times over the past year, to look at new cars. We finally found what we were looking for - a Hyundai Elantra with a manual transmission (not easy to find on Long island or in NYC) and I plopped $500 down on it. Today the car should be ready and we will be picking it up. So as soon as I finish this, I have to get ready to go to the bank to pick up a cashiers check for just over $16,500 (out the door) to pay for the car. My bank accounts will be all but depleted. It took me a long time to save that money and it took less than 45 minutes of sitting there with the dealer to spend it. I knew what I was willing to spend on the car we were looking at, which in fact was about $150 than I should have spent but as I said we have looked for quite a while without being able to find one with a manual transmission and I did not want to travel far and wide to find one. When we started looking, I was pretty sure the car would cost about only $14K in total but we changed gears a bit and bought a different model the Elantra Touring Wagon instead of the sedan. It is a nice car, good on the gas, will be okay as a family car even with 4 dogs, and is probably somewhat better for the environment as compared to something like a Cadillac Escalade or an Abrams Tank. Add to that the facts that it is pretty much loaded in its base configuration such as having 4 wheel anti lock brakes, traction control, stability control, tire pressure monitoring, front and rear side mounted airbags, remote keyless entry with alarm, A/C, a 172-Watt AM/FM/XM® Satellite Radio/CD/MP3 audio system with 6 speakers (2 front-door-mounted speakers, 2 tweeters and 2 rear speakers), an iPod®/USB/Auxiliary input jacks and other stuff. It also came with a beige interior, maybe not my top choice but much better than the other option - a black interior (cloth seats). Imagine me getting the black interior with 4 dogs. My wife would have killed me but not before making me clean out the dog hair.
Not a bad deal for the price even though I over paid about $150. The fact that the dealer found one only minutes after we got to the dealership was worth the extra expense. Several other dealers told me they either could not find them or there would be an outrageous premium to order one with a manual transmission even though the manual is normally much less expensive than the automatic. As a matter of fact, we stopped at another dealer just minutes before the one where we made our deal and that first dealer told me the car with a manual was almost impossible to find even though it was the base model. He told me the only one available in NY State was in Albany and it would likely cost an extra $3K to buy it. Another dealer told me I would have to go to Virginia to buy one with a manual because folks in the big city areas just don't go for em so there is no demand up this way. Yeah right! We were off from the first dealer we stopped at last Saturday to the dealer who finally found one for us within 5 (maybe 10) minutes of our plopping our butts down next to the saleswoman's desk.
So now it is off to pillage the family bank accounts. Then, once armed with a cashiers check, we will be off to the dealership to kiss the money goodbye and welcome a new car into the family. I'll hand my son the keys and ask the question - North, East, South or West! Then off we will go....Hopefully we will drive to a nice gun shop somewhere so I can look at new rifles and at least keep the dream going that someday soon I will be buying a new one. Maybe, just maybe, there will be enough left over to buy a rifle. If not, then I will just have to start saving all over again and as soon as I have enough for the rifle I want I'll have to buy it. Otherwise I am sure something else will come up to gobble up my money and just keep me dreaming about a new gun.
All the best,
Glenn B
