check out my new ride

or, well, rather, kara's new ride. i'll get to drive it some! actually, she's going to make me drive it tonight when she gets home from work. i confess to a touch of anxiety regarding driving the thing. it's akin to my original fear of driving, which kept me from becoming licensed until the ripe age of 27. it's not as bad as that though. i just don't want to ding the thing! it's pretty! lots of bells & whistles.

these are not good photos, as it was dark in the dealership yesterday evening when we took possession. better snaps will come, rest assured.

there was no issue, by the bye, with the abrupt departure of the salesman who dealt with us those weeks ago. this mazda dealership is family run, currently on generation #4, and they seem quite reputable. if you want a mazda (or, apparently, a suzuki - but why would you want a suzuki?!) you could do worse than russ dunmire of tacoma. after the hushed-up disappearance of "brian" (if that was his real name) we worked with matt dunmire and his sister (whose first name i have forgotten, but she's a dunmire when at work and something else when not - there's an annoying jingle on tv and she told us how rough it was for her in high school over that).

anyway. everything was groovy. actually, better than groovy, because we got a good rate on our financing so our monthly payments are going to be lower than "brian" had suggested (i hesitate to say "promised").

so yeah. mazda 3, hatchback. 2006. moon roof. six-cd changer. airbags up the yinyang. it's crazy comfortable. and it's red but not fire-engine red. it's called "copper red" i think. kara has mixed feelings about the color. it's not as red as she would like, yet it's not a color car one sees a whole lot. and we were told that mazda won't be producing more cars of this model in this color any more. so we have a limited edition vehicle here.
the headlights are kinda cool, no?