Finally Got a New Ride

After more than 9 years with the Sebring convertible, i finally decided on a new car.  Well, new to me anyway.  Got a 2003 Audi A4 Cabriolet (i guess that's German for convertible) from a dealer down in Charlotte that specializes in off-lease, single-owner, high-end vehicles. 

It's silver with a black top.  Just over 30k miles.  The bigger, 3.0 liter engine.  Pristine condition*. 

It's the car i really wanted all along, which is probably why i could never make up my mind of what to get until i figured out the solution of getting a used one.  We had dabbled with a new Saturn Aura or a Pontiac G6 hardtop convertible, which led me to consider the new Volkswagen EOS hardtop convertible.  I finally concluded that, because i drive so few miles, my best bet was something a few years old with moderate mileage.  Let someone else pay for the new car depreciation, and i can still drive it for several years with few worries about degradation.

* "Pristine" was the term Julie used to describe the car to Emily & Jackson (they were with us when we bought it).  On our way home, we stopped at the rest stop close to Winston and then the car wouldn't start**.  Emily, who is reading a book on the Titanic, chimed in, "that's just like the Titanic.  They said it was unsinkable and it sank.  And you said this car was perfect, and it's not."

** It wouldn't start because the security system detected a key that didn't belong to the car.  Or so it thought.  The 2nd keyfob had apparently never been programmed for this particular vehicle, and that mucked up the system.  When we left the dealer, it started fine because the 2nd key was tucked away in the center armrest console.  I had popped it in my pocket at the rest stop.  I made a frantic (well, you know me, it wasn't really frantic) call to Julie to come back to the rest stop to help me or pick me up, as the case might have been (she had taken off in the Suburban first and didn't notice that i didn't follow, because of a bad wreck on the entrance ramp back to the highway - this is all classic chaos theory).  Then a frantic call to the dealer.  The guy there is the one who figured out the problem.

I'll post photos in the next entry.