Saturday, December 4, 2010

Living in limbo

As feared, our stay here at my parents is turning out to be the extended re-mix 12" version, not the 45. The hold up is needing a second vehicle. If I go to Maine without one, the kids and I will be pretty much stuck at the cabin whenever Aaron goes to work, i.e., for 10 hours a day, five days a week. Yes, we can take walks in the woods. Yes, we have two neighbors we could visit. But that would be it. No food shopping, no library, no errands. As much as I miss Aaron, that scenario that puts me in mind of The Shining. Meanwhile, a car (or truck?) purchase is not something to rush into. There are many variables to examine and ponder--and that bump up against each other. Forest's vote is for a purple car.  Aaron and I are flexible on color.  We just want something that can handle our road and that is reliable, oh yeah, and that we can afford.  Thoughts?  Advice?

7 comments:

  1. I have a friend that owns a used auto store and goes to the auctions regularly to buy. Give me a price range and what you are looking for and he can perhaps find something. My parents just bought a car off the internet and are thrilled! Purple will show all the dirt you want a light color vehicle. Sorry about the living with the folks! Perhaps the kids and I need to visit a relative in Cambridge some weekend then we can bump into eachother in the city!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Whatever you do spend the $100 or so and have the car inspected... also, it would be worth it to buy a few slots at carfax.com and check out the VINs that you're seriously considering.

    As far as inspections are concerned, we used http://homepage.aiminspections.com/ and were very happy... they'll go TO the car and take it for a road test and tell you if there's been body work and what condition the car is in. We bought a Nissan Altima with 90K miles based on their inspection and couldn't be happier.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When that was my home, I drove a Toyota 4 runner with 33 inch tires. It made it home most times of the year. Not to be a drag, but that road is no joke. You need a bad ass truck. Unless you like carrying things....
    At times we had normal road cars, and a shitbox subaru that we used only to get up and down the road with, which is good advice if you want to preserve the undercarriage of your decent cars. But seriously, without being snarky, at least one of your vehicles should be tall and 4 wheel drive. Good luck! Jackie

    ReplyDelete
  4. Do you think a toyota rav4 is tuff enuff?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Probably...I think it's good to have a car that you can actually put into 4 low, as opposed to just all wheel drive. Things get muddy. Remind me to show you pictures some time of said 4runner stuck up to the bumpers in the mud...on the road...I think that was during the 7 week hike in period.
    There will be times when you cannot get a vehicle to your house, no matter what it is. But also there are many rocks poking out of the road, so that's why I mentioned height as a factor to consider.
    Could Aaron get by with a smaller toyota truck or something? You'll be hauling gas for the generator, right? It's nice to not have gas cans enclosed in your vehicle...

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'd second that about getting something that you can manually put into 4WD. If you go into every situation with 4WD a'blazin then you won't have anything to fall back on when it gets tough. I never liked AWD for that reason. Any sort of off-roading, my best advice is that the vehicle doesn't know better than you, but you gotta listen to what the vehicle is telling you. And pick a line - always pick a line. That being said, that road and the weather up there is a lot more than anything I grew up around. The road to the cabin in Tennessee would mud out every spring and become near impassable but it was still graded by the County every summer. Also, you can buy taller sized tires (taller side walls) for most trucks to get a little extra clearance, though most any 4WD truck should be fine.

    ReplyDelete