8/9/2011

Well, Ms. Clio might be on the way out. Remember how I took her in Saturday because of the HVAC fan. Yeah, they found a dead mouse in there. To be more specific, they found a dead mouse’s head in the “Squirrel Cage” of the fan and, I assume, the rest of the critter in the housing. They claim to have cleaned it out and deodorized, but I can smell “Parfum de Rongeurs Morts” when I run the HVAC. I had to drive with the windows down and sunroof open, all the vents pointed away from me, and the fan on low this morning. I parked in the garage here at work with the windows down and sunroof open. Hell, I didn't even bother locking the damned thing. If it doesn't clear up by the weekend... well, I don't know. And the smell isn't even all that is worrying me. There’s the whole “Junta Virus” aspect that I'm not comfortable with. No, I'm afeared I might be looking to unload that car in the near future. I just looked up the KBB value and the private sale price would just about cover a base model Yaris. Of course they wouldn't give me nearly enough trade in value for it, and I don't want to get back under a car loan, so a new Yaris is probably out of the question. No, what makes the most sense is to sell it and drive Fifi. I've got, or will have when John has his bike or 510 going again, Aunt Bea as a backup daily driver and there’s always The Seven if times get really tough. That wasn't meant as a passive/aggressive “hint” that John needs to give me my car back. Not at all. I'm just talking here. John is welcome to drive Aunt Bea as long as he needs to. For that matter, he would be welcome to Fifi were I not about to be using it in lieu of driving the Black Death car, Ms. Clio. Hmm, she might have a new name, being black and all. Yes, I know bubonic plague and Junta virus are not the same thing, but both are spread by rodents so it is close enough for me. Well, I’ve got to pee and it is getting close to lunch time. I'm going to close up for a bit and plan to return for more rant later. And I'm back. So, yeah. If the Black Death continues to smell by this weekend, I think I might pursue not being its owner any more. I'll have to take a bath on it because no one is going to pay top dollar for a car with “rotting rodent” as the primary olfactory sensation. I wonder if I could trade it in on that van sitting on the Fiat dealer lot next to Texas Motors Ford. They were asking something like $13,000.00 for it a month or so ago. Perhaps it has come down enough to trade for a stinky Versa with Renault badges. Yeah, that probably won't happen either. No, I'm probably stuck with this thing forever. I guess I'll park it on the back patio and let it rot. Hell, it already smells like it. I need to find someone with anosmia to buy it! Yeah, like that’ll happen. I should probably just accept the fact that I have a non-air-conditioned and non-heated car from now on, shut the fan off and... hell, I don't know, block the vents. Oh, apparently “rodents in the heater box” is a common problem with the Versa so John needs to be mindful of it in his wife’s car. The three-pronged argument against keeping the Black Death are 1) the current smell, b) future infestation, and III) the Junta virus. Sure, III isn't terribly likely, but I'm always going to wonder. Hell, I feel a tickle in my lungs right now just thinking about it. Great, now I'm dying of Junta virus. Awesome. Well, I knew something was going to kill me someday. Ain’t none of us made it out alive yet. OK, nap time. I might be back in a little while. We'll see. So, I've been shopping. I've compared, strictly as an academic exercise of course, the new Fiat 500, Toyota Yaris, Smart FourTwo, Ford Fiesta, and the Nissan Versa on Kelly Blue Book dot com. They all come in under $17,000.00 and are all just about comparable in “stuff.” I'll probably go ahead and veto another Versa because... well, been there, done that. The Fiesta will probably get the boot as well because I'm ready to be back in a two door. So that leaves us with the totally wacky Smart, the semi-wacky Fiat, and the almost pedestrian Toyota. I've loved that two door Yaris from the beginning and I still feel like there is more potential in that car than some people will acknowledge. It would be a slam-dunk win for the Smart if it came with a true manual transmission. I'm just not sure I could live with the semi-automatic travesty in that thing, long run wise. Sure, I could stand it for a while, but I know me and I think I'd begin to hate it before long. I might not, what with the paddle shift and stuff, but I just don't know for sure. The Fiat is just such an unknown, you know? Yeah, it’s cool, but will that coolness hold up? What about reliability? Is the thing going to crap out in a year? Is there going to be support for it in a year? I'm not sure I'm ready to be one of the first in line. Of course, I'd be the coolest kid in class with one. There is something to be said for that. Well, it is approaching 1600 h so I guess I'm going to just call it a rant right here. I may swing by a couple car dealers on the way home. We'll see.