Little Thunder is Dead. Long Live Big Berry

All hail online shopping! On Saturday, I drove up to the Davenport Subaru dealership in Orillia to look at a 2002 Forester. It was in my price range and was red! This is exactly the colour I have been looking for. Don't get me wrong. I loved Little Thunder and her understated and elegant grey colour, even if she was pretty rusty in her later years. But I suppose I'm just in need of a change and wanted something that better reflected my personality. After all, I'm planning on driving this car into the ground too.

So the Marine and I went up to mighty Orillia. It was an absolutely glorious day for a drive and it was the first time in ages it seemed where we were able to spend some real time together just talking and hanging out.

We arrived on time [All hail Mapquest.ca!] and were met by the sales person I had spoken to in the morning: Pat. He was a very nice older gentleman, who had once worked as an auditor for Price Waterhouse. Eventually, he couldn't take city living anymore and moved back home to Orillia.

We had a good look at the Forester. It's a little bit worn in, that being, in a three year old car way, but nothing to worry.about.

Then I had a test drive. Now I must say that I was a little apprehensive because I hadn't been in a standard car since the week before, but All hail The Guru! Her lesson served me well, and I was whipping around the streets of Orillia in no time. It was amazing to drive a car with so much more power than I'd experienced before. Standard is actually really really fun to drive. Well. I like it anyway.

So after our tour of "Hidden Orillia", I arrived back at the dealership completely sold. I of course asked if the price was maleable, knowing full well it wasn't because Subarus are awesome cars and it's completely a seller's market where they're concerned, BUT Pat the sales dude did knock off the registration fee which was about $300 bucks.

So in short, I was able to get the car, get my financing and get my ownership transferred over all at the dealership. I was absolutely over the moon that my financing came through. I was really proud of myself because I have had to work really hard to maintain my credit rating. Some days I wondered why I bothered. Saturday I realized why I did. All that hard work made a new car happen when frankly, we needed it most.

Who the heck loses two cars in three days? Oh well, no half measures at our household, I'll give us that.

So later on that night, I had a freak out because I looked up the car on Carfax and the mileage report said the car was at 61K in September. THIS YEAR. But it's now at 100K. Of course it made no sense. But I did call Pat and I'm glad I did because the record online was completely out of whack. Makes me wonder what my fee was for exactly. At any rate, even if wonky mileage had been the case, I'd of gotten the car anyway.

So I pick up the Berrymobile on Saturday and we can get back to a somewhat normal life. The rental was great. Just not $280 a week great, you know? Still, I feel a little pang when I see Little Thunder on the driveway. I have so many memories associated with her. Funny how this year has gone, new job, finding Toby a new home, getting a new car. Letting go and moving on seems to be the lesson of choice this year.