Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Meet Me In St. Louis

Went car shopping with mom yesterday. Better than expected. She's got a 99 GMC 4X4 Jimmy with 93,000 miles and it has cost her about $3000 out of pocket this past year: AC, tires, transmission. Now it seems it is losing anti-freeze somewhere. So the question is: Do you put more money into it and keep it HOPING that is the last repair, or do you bite the bullet and buy a new car? She's 62 and nearing retirement so I know she would prefer not to have payments. On the other hand she doesn't feel secure driving a car that has been so fragile.

She qualifies for the GM Discount and will save an additional $2500 on any product she picks so that is hard to beat. Maybe spend $1000 of the savings on a 100,000 mile warranty?

Last night: Drove around St. Louis last night after my wife took the kids to The St. Louis Zoo for FREE. That's right. The St. Louis Zoo is awesome and FREE! You have to pay extra to ride the train or go to the Children's Petting Zoo.

We drove some of the old neighborhoods and ended up eating dinner at a place that we often would go on dates to: Seamus McDaniels. Typical St. Louis all the way. IT was great. Afterwards we went and saw Fun With Dick and Jane. It was funny, but I thought it would be better.

Sunny and 60 yesterday. Cold, rainy and 40 today. Must take NAP!

4 comments:

Artistic Soul said...

Oh the zoo! How fun! I'm glad the weather is so nice you can take them this time of year.

It's hard to say on the car - I keep telling myself the same thing with mine. Everyone says if you can get past the repairs after 90,000 - a Nissan will run another 90 without much trouble. I'm hoping to avoid the payments too!!

The MAN Fan Club said...

Reply to wiccachicky: IF in St. Louis definitely go to the zoo and try to find an authentic Italian restaurant on "The Hill" nearby. Great thin crust pizza or pasta.

The best car is a paid for car. Our 2000 Neon has 2 payments left and has 86,000 miles. It's been good for us.

Bill Victor said...

Hope it is warm and dry on Saturday. It's either the Arch or the zoo (maybe both, but we won't go up in the arch if we go to the zoo). If i remember correctly, the STL Zoo is about one million times better than the Dallas Zoo (which costs about 5 bucks).

The MAN Fan Club said...

Reply to BillyV: The St. Louis Zoo is probably in a safe neighborhood than the Dallas Zoo. Hope our families get to connect this weekend.