After a year of working remotely, I have to say that it reinforced my general distaste for needing a car. I guess I've never been much of a car guy, and viewed it as a necessary expense. It pained me to half to fork over a big wad of cash to buy my current car a year ago, after my leased car was crushed. It seems like the more money I make, the less I want to spend on a car. Being car poor is moronic.
But I have to admit that I was enthusiastic when I leased the first Prius, because it was so cheap and the technology was fascinating to me. It was that fascination that led me to buying the Prius V last year instead of getting a Corolla, which I could have bought outright in cash. Hyper-mileing is like a sport to me, and filling your tank for $30 makes me giddy when I see someone else put $60 into their tank. I "only" get around 42 mpg in the V (compared to 52 in the sedan), but I'll take it.
Returning to a job not at home, it's worth noting that I feel like I'm just getting used to the car, even after a year. That's especially weird considering we put 13,500 miles on it in 12 months! The thing is, the nature of most of the driving in it has been a mile and a half for lunch, or 600 miles each way on a driving trip. Those conditions are a lot different than the daily hour or so driving to and from work.
I will say that I'm really pleased with the car. The sedan already bended the laws of physics in terms of internal space, but this one takes it to another level. I'm amazed at how much crap we can pack in there when we travel. We roll a lot lighter than we used to with Simon, but space is such a non-issue. I feel good about not bending to a bigger car or minivan.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the garage, Diana's last payment for her Hyundai hit this month. I can't believe it was five years ago that I verbally abused some poor schmuck sales manager who had not sold a car all day to get the price that we did. It has generally been a solid performer, though it did have some trouble early on with a pinched fuel line that caused it to crap out. Apparently they had to get Hyundai involved because it was a totally strange problem, though it didn't lead to a recall, as far as I know.
Diana's car barely has 45,000 miles after five years, which is about 15,000 under budget for typical mileage. Stay-at-home mom, for the win! I imagine if we didn't live in the snow and salt, we could easily keep it for another three or four years, but we'll see. As much as I hate buying cars, I don't really care for them as they age, either. That's the damage of being stranded all of the time with my first beater car.
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