After over 11 years without a brand new car for myself, I started looking right after Christmas.
Basically, the divorce killed the dreams of a 3er BMW, Lexus IS or Infinity G35, so off looking at the Mazda 3i Touring, Honda Civic LX and finally for giggles, the Scion tC.
New Years Eve, I drove home an 06 Scion tC in Flint Mica with the side air bags.
For $17,400 it's a hard car to beat with the Toyota 2AZ-FE engine and a five speed. So many standard features it was hard to pass up. The panoramic moon roof is pretty cool.
Probably 2nd would have been the Mazda 3i Touring with two option packages.
I really felt I got more car for the money and besides, it's a practical midlife crisis mobile. Toyota Camry drivetrain with a bit of boy racer styling.
Of course, being 40, I passed up all the boy racer toys.
It comes standard with the 2.4L four engine producing approx 160HP and similar torque with a 6200 RPM redline, ABS, 17" wheels with 215/45-17 tires, A/C, the moonroof, tilt, cruise, keyless entry, PW, PL, pretty decent factory sound, builtin hookup for the MP3/iPod player, speed sensitive sound system. It's decently nimble, with firm supportive seats.
Really, a lot of car for the money.
So I'm really in full troll status with essentially two Toyota's in the drive way, even though neither of them has a Toyota badge on them.
The other one is a 1994 Geo Prizm (Toyota Corolla with the Geo badge) that has 176K on the clock and still purrs like new.
TB
