That New Car Smell

My 10-year-old Saturn was acting up, so after several years of shilly-shallying I finally bit the bullet and bought a new car: a 2007 Toyota Camry. I was willing to pay extra for a hybrid version (even though, doing the math, given how little I drive, I would need to own the car for about 90 years before it paid for itself in gas savings) but the only one they had was cherry red (an obnoxious color) and tricked out with an extra $6K worth of crap like GPS and Bluetooth that I have no use or desire for. (I’m a simple people—all I wanted was an iPod adapter and decent cupholders—both of which came standard).

If you’re in the Saratoga area and are in the market for a car, I highly recommend New Country Toyota at Exit 15. They were very friendly and not high-pressure—or at least Aimee, my salesperson, wasn’t, but then she said she was new at car salesmanship. I thought I got a pretty good deal (like I know...), although they could not answer my question about the difference between a sunroof and a moonroof (apparently, the only difference is time of day you use it) and whether the latter would accelerate my lycanthropy.

I was excited by the fact that I had an iPod adapter (and a decent sound system) and no longer had to use a craoppy tape deck adapter—but then the day after I got the car, my iPod died. (Yes, I felt like Burgess Meredith in that Twilight Zone episode “Time Enough at Last” where he finally has the chance to read all the books he wants but then breaks his glasses). So my shakedown cruise was down to the Apple Store in Crossgates Mall to see what was wrong with it—fortunately, it just needed a power boost and a restart. Whew!