Ranty rantness...

[herveus]

We went to the Bright Hills event yesterday. You know, the one titled "Return of the Merchants of Venice". Well, there sure were a number of quality merchants, including at least three who came down from the East Kingdom (Thorny Rose, Poison Pen, Fabric Dragon) on the (reasonable) expectation that there shoppers would show up. They didn't. Traffic was pretty much dead pretty much all day, and that didn't seem to matter whether you were inside or outside by the list field. When gross sales don't come up to expenses for an event 60 miles from home, it really sucks. Rocks through a soda straw suckage. From the remarks about numbers of fighters for the various martial activities, I sense that it was likely a general lack of attendees. Blarg.

Meanwhile, move to Sunday. killerbunnie007 has decided that his Ford Bronco is painful to refuel, especially as often as it needs it. 5.8 liters of V-8 suck petrol worse than the comparable engine in our monster Chevy van (of the cursed maintenance history this year).

He's moved with commendable alacrity on lining up a car loan and looking at things like used Honda Civics, Toyota Corollas, and Nissan Sentras. Heck, he could even consider new vehicles as well.

Today, we went over to Carmax to examine a 2001 Honda Civic that looked interesting. The only thing wrong with the car is the price, but Carmax "doesn't haggle". This model yielded "interesting" findings on the NADA and Kelley used car price guides. NADA thought the car should retail for about $7500 (NADA is consistently lower than Kelley), while Kelley thinks $10,100 is more where it ought to be. Carmax thought that $11,100 was more like it. Too bad for them.

Comments

[moirinknits.livejournal.com]

So far we're loving our Toyota Matrix. Great gas mileage (~30-35mpg), Comfortable and ability to haul a decent amount of stuff. It's pretty much the same car as the Pontiac Vibe and based on the Corolla. Our biggest complaint are the larger than average blind spots. We picked it because it ranked really well w/ consumer reports in reliability and gas mileage.

[sskipstress.livejournal.com]

I'm always wishing that I had gotten the Matrix when I got my Subaru. I was nervous about buying a car, even a Toyota, in its first model year. All my friends who bought a Vibe love them, too.

For Sale

[anne-rose.livejournal.com]

I gotta 2001 Honda Civic for sale ... it needs new tires and a timing belt ... price negotiable...

TTFN

[luscious-purple.livejournal.com]

Yes, the lack of attendance at yesterday's event was duly noted at tonight's Storvik business meeting. There were four events in Atlantia this weekend, although two of them were in the southern region and one was a specialty kids' event. Plus, there had been an event scheduled in Bhakail, and even though it was canceled, some EK-ers who live near the Atlantian border may have had that event on their calendars and didn't think of looking for other SCA events to go to once the Bhakail event was canceled. Plus, people were headed home for Mother's Day.

Hope things pick up for your business fast.

And yeah, the Vibe/Matrix is high on my list of possible "next cars" once my 1996 Sunfire decides to bite the dust. (I hope that won't be for a few more years, though.)

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

The event in Bhakail was up against Icefalcon's Ducal Challenge just over the river in NJ, which was also a Royal Progress (which is why the Fred event got cancelled).

[thatpotteryguy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sales on Saturday sucked. I'm in the same boat, upside down on expenses, and that NEVER happens...

Anyway, why buy a new rice-burner? They're desigend to run pretty much forever with proper maintainance/understanding of vehicle limitations; buying one a year or two old is, really, probably a better long-term investment.

I have a used Honda Odyssey. I LOVES it.

[herveus.livejournal.com]

Well, moirinknits's comment nudged me to see what Matrixes were available, leading to discovering a 2003 Civic LX (a trim level up from the previous) for about $1000 more (and right in line with blue books). We hustled our butts up to Rockville and bought the car.

Now to get the Bronco sold, now that the oil pressure gauge is working. It's scary when you start the car and the oil pressure reads 0. Fortunately, it was an instrument problem, not an oil pump problem.