New car get!

[hazliya]

Totally forgot to post this.

I've been driving my dad's beat up old Taurus for 5+ years now. A few weeks ago, he called me out of the blue to tell me that he may have found me a car. I said great, my car still runs fine, but whatever. No big hurry.

Last week, he tells me to take Thursday off so we can go to the DMV and swap the titles.

...What?

So you did find a car. Thanks for letting me know.

What kind of car is it, Dad?

"A silver one!"

...Thank you. That was so helpful, I'm speechless.

So I headed down nice and early, and thanks to the lovely people at the DMV, we had titles/insurance/registration/plates swapped and done with in less than two hours. Whoa!

It turns out, I'm now the owner of a silver Pontiac G6 with red interior lighting. It's awesome. It makes me want to play Splashdown all the time.

The best part about the car? The price. It belonged to one of my dad's employees, who blew a cylinder in it and was going to scrap it, but gave it to my father on the condition that he haul it away himself. Papa agreed, as the car was otherwise in fantastic shape, and took it to my mechanic cousin. They found an engine with less than 40k miles on it, slapped on new tires, cleaned the damn thing, and fixed up the climate control. Car looks like new, runs like a dream, and total money paid to get it so?

Less than $1800.

I'm so happy with it. The only trouble is, I need to find an adapter for my iPod (no tape deck in this one), and the car is crazy fast. I can go 80 and not feel it. I just need to keep an eye on that, but otherwise, I couldn't be happier. And I need to find a way to repay my dad and cousin - probably grooming the latter's dog for a year and cooking something low-cal yet palatable for the former.

I love my car.

Comments

[mariaklob.livejournal.com]

You gots a G6.

*slobbers*

Awesome.

[darkoni]

Well, everyone knows that red things go faster. Since you have red lighting on the inside, but silver on the outside, it completely alters your perception of speed. You think the car should be going slower because it isn't red, but the lighting makes you drive faster.

[treyvana.livejournal.com]

If it has an AUX input, you just need the cable- about $10 bucks.

if it doesn't have the 3.5 mm port, it's probably easier to just get a new stereo- FM transmitters only work in places where there are almost no radio stations, honestly, and to get a decent one, you're easily looking at $75 or more. But, a stereo with aux input/whatever else you want isn't too expensive, generally- $100 for bottom of the line. I myself am getting one that's about $160- with front 3.5mm jack input, rear usb input, and pretty lights :-p

[daedaleandeus.livejournal.com]

I categorically disagree with the above.
I purchased this (http://www.amazon.com/Monster-iCarPlay-Wireless-Transmitter-Charger/dp/B000H72MMU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1256479752&sr=8-2) 3 years ago and it worked fantastically until about 6 months ago when it died, so I bought a new one for the price listed there. There are plenty of 'empty' stations around MA and it's transmission is good enough that I listen to audio books every day with no distortion. It can keep 3 pre-set stations, so I have a station for the Out-of-Boston area, the inside-Boston area and New York. I highly recommend it.

[laurion]

There are two kinds of FM transmitters to consider here - the ones that plug into the cigarette lighter, and the ones that just plug into the iPod. The ones that plug into the cigarette lighter transmit with more power and do better overriding radio interference.

[hazliya.livejournal.com]

Huh. Do they get bad static? Or rather, is static an issue? Also, do they automatically find an unused station or do you have to fiddle with it?

[anitra.livejournal.com]

You have to fiddle with them. And if you drive into an area where there IS a station on that band, you'll get a lot of static/interference.

We used to have one (it eventually died) that plugged into the cigarette lighter and allowed you to have pre-set stations, much like D said above. If you go the FM transmitter route, that would be the kind to get.

Also, the sign that it was about to die was that the static kept getting worse and worse. Until its last 3 months of life, we got very little static at all.

[laurion]

Awesome!

I just installed a new stereo unit in my car which gives me iPod control right from the stereo, and bluetooth for my phone, which the old one didn't have. I've also used many different integration options, so if you want to go beyond the basic line in or FM adapter route, I'd be happy to help.