Well, my trusty Saab finally died (or, to be more specific, the problem presented posed more of a cost to fix than to replace the actual car), so I went car shopping.
I’d originally wanted to see if I could find something cheap and fuel-miserly. I went down to this auto dealership that we’ve had a lot of good experiences in the past with and looked around. They showed me several cars, good and bad; one car that surprised me was a 2002 Saturn SC1. I’d never considered a saturn before, but this one was nice. They also showed me a Chivvy Aveo… Oh lordy, what a crappy car. This car only had 33k miles on it and felt like it was going to fall apart on me. I’ve never driven a nosier car either; the road noise in this car was more than even my '67 Mustang! What a piece of ,garbage!
Long story short, i settled on a 2002 Nissan Maxima. A little more than I wanted to pay (but still got away with a good deal) and a bit less fuel efficient than I’d planned on, but once I drove this car I was hooked.
Every option imaginable (with the exception of the optional heated steering wheel ), 255 hp (and, boy, you can feel every horse!).
Lots of fun to drive. Averages about 31mpg highway and 21 mpg city.
Love it so much we’re trying to get my wife one on trade for her 07 Pontiac.
Had brand new '74 Datsun B210 Hatchback for the wife, engine went the second day, wife went into the dealership marched up to the salesman, who was in the middle of a pitch to a cutomer, and said real loud, “You sold me a lemon!” So she had two new cars in as many days, but truth be told neither was a Maxima.
Back when I had my Camry, I remember Maximas constantly
wasting me on highway entrance ramps. Those suckers have
some pickup. After I wrecked that car, I rented a Nissan (I
think it was an Altima) and I couldn’t get used to the torque.
I kept screeching the tires when the light would turn green.
I still seriously considered a Maxima before finally settling on
my Corolla.
I bought a low milage 1990 Maxima around 1992. I drive it for 9 yrs and loved it. It had lots of pop and generally was a fun, tough car. It never gave me any significant problems. I dinged the front end and it wasn’t worth repairing. I bought a 4-cyl camry with no pop at all - reliable dull car. I now have a camry hybrid. Driving is fun again and gets much better milage.
My first car was a 71 Datsun hatchback like this-only mine was light yellow-
My dad bought it for me as a reward for being salutatorian in my high school graduating class(and no one was more surprised at that than me) -
He gave me my choice of vehicles and I narrowed it down between the Datsun and a Triumph Spitfire-
I really wanted the Triumph, but the thing was about twice as expensive so I went for the cheaper. (one of my regrets of youth)
But, that little old Datsun lasted many a mile.
), 255 hp (and, boy, you can feel every horse!).
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