Blue Goes Green

That’s right Blue has joined the eco-friendly nation. I traded in my convertible Jaguar for an eco-friendly hybrid. Considering that I have driven the Jaguar about three times since last summer, getting rid of it seemed like a good idea. My hybrid of choice, the 2008 Toyota Camry. I test drove a few other hybrids and found that the Camry gave me the most features and luxuries for the least amount of money. Amazingly enough, although the Camry costs about $7000 more than the Honda Civic, the special lease pricing from Toyota actually makes the monthly costs less.

Oh yeah, I leased the car and did not buy it outright. I leased the car for three years. I even got them to include all the maintenance on the car for those three years – no oil changes or anything. You see I have come to realize that I have auto ADD. I never seem to keep a car for more than three years, which makes it difficult to ever pay one off or build up any equity. Proof of my ADD can be found on my blog – my original post after I bought the Jag was in May of 2005, a little less than three years ago. I figure my auto ADD makes me the perfect lease candidate, besides I like that the lease gives me options when the three years are up. I can:

1. Just give them back the car. Literally hand them the keys and walk away.
2. I can trade the car in on any other make or model of car. This only works if you have equity in the car, which I should.
3. I can buy the car for the residual payment. This will likely be a last option for me.

I am not used to having a NEW car. I usually buy cars that are two to three years old. This is only the second new car I have ever owned. I bought a new Mustang in 1986, which my ex got repossessed which destroyed my credit for seven years. Let’s hope this experience turns out a little different. This is also the first step in my master plan to go from two cars down to one. I figure that in 2007 I spent about $13,500 on my two cars. This includes loan payments, insurance, gas and maintenance. My estimate for 2008 is about $6000.

As I said, this is the first new car I have had in a while. My Jeep is a 2002 so I have now jumped six years in technology and I have to say that one of the features of the Camry has crystallized for me how lazy we have become in this country. Did you know that today, you don’t even have to take your keys out of your pocket to drive your car – ok key is a misnomer as I don’t even have a key for the car, just a remote. I don’t need to take the remote out to lock, unlock, start or stop the car. The car unlocks when I touch the door handle, it locks when I push a button on the door handle, it has a “start” button in the car instead of a key slot. I mean really, have we become so lazy in this country that we can’t even pull our keys out of our pocket or purse. So sad.

Anyway…I guess I will have to change my name from Blue to Greenish Blue. How about Aqua?

I have a couple of other posts I will try to write later this week. The first on my experience last Sunday with the ancient art of torture – I mean yoga. I have also gotten permission from The Rose to post one of the pictures form our trip to Myrtle so I will do that and give you an update on our relationship.