On My Car And Being Immature

Tue, March 7, 2006 - 7:52 PM PST

At 8am I had my car at the Mazda dealership for warranty work. They said it'd be a few hours and offered me a shuttle ride to somewhere in town, so I had them drop me off at the local bookstore. After a nice breakfast at the Denny's next door, I collected a stack of books to read while I waited for my car. And I read, and I read, and I read. At 2pm they called me and told me that they found the problem - it's my swaybar bushings! But they don't have the part in-stock so I'll have to come back after it comes in. Suck!

"And I see that you've had her in here a few times for this same thing already, but don't you worry, they've got an updated part this time". Yeah yeah yeah. I've heard it all before. Just fix it.

As a slight reprieve, they did let me get behind the wheel of a Mazdaspeed 6 while I was there.

It's a sick ride, no doubt about that. But I am pretty sure that I'm not going to trade in my Mazdaspeed Protege for it any time soon. It does have considerably more nut than my car, but it also weighs considerably more, and the all-wheel drive, though really a nice feature, just doesn't give me the same thrill as the torque-stearing demon that my own front-wheel drive is. Plus, and their own marketing material confirms this, it's targetted at a man with a family in a midlife crisis. That's not me, and I'm not sure I want to give up my spicy orange car yet, even if it would mean taking on a more polished, mature, professional look. I mean, I'm only 26, I'm allowed to be a little immature still, right? Right?