Gas Mileage Woes et al

I guess being an owner of a Honda is some kind of special thing or something. There's a website you can sign up for called "Owner Link" through the Honda site.

Let me tell you...Ford has no such thing. Nope. Once you buy a Ford, it's good luck and we'll see you when it breaks down, baby. Their Escorts are pretty good though…at least the mid-90's ones. Probably because they're foreign-made.

And by 'pretty good', I don't mean that they're so solid they seem like one big piece of steel attached to four wheels. Or like finely-made puzzle pieces fitted together absolutely perfectly with not a millimeter to spare.

No.

I mean that the engines seem to run forever. My old Escort had a great engine and she got 30 miles to the gallon. Pretty groovy when gas is $3.00/gallon.

(Dear SUV Conspicuous Consumer Owner: Thanks for parking your SUV in compact car parking, you tool. I hope someone dings the side of your car with a vengeance, lazy a*s. It won't be me though…I'm just going to think of $3.00 gas and smile.)

Anyway, I'm not sure why I thought that an Accord is an economy car that would get great gas mileage. Because that is not what an Accord is at all. I should have realized this, since it's more expensive than a Civic. Big fat f*ckin duh. It still gets ok mileage, but it's not what I'm used to by any means. And it has this ginormous 15 gallon gas tank. Crikey. And it gets a total of 23 miles per gallon! That seems like nothin. No wonder the car seemed huge when I went to buckle Niece in last night for our short joy ride.

I still love the car. I guess I'm just skittish about money right now. Having a car payment is making me very nervous. Plus there's the insurance. My cost of ownership just went from $65 per month to $290 per month, about a 450% increase.

But it's raining really hard out right now, and that rain reminds of a few things…the plexiglass window in the wagon part of the car. It leaked during rain and car washes. The rain also reminds me of the non-functioning defrost mechanism on the back window. That was pretty scary sometimes. Furthermore, I am reminded of having no air conditioning during rain that feel through air that was 90 degrees or more. So, right now, I'd be riding around in a car with all the windows up during 90 degree weather and no air conditioning. With brakes that are just about falling off.

Gotta look on the bright side. Yet, I'm so much better at complaining! What can I say? It's an American tradition and right. We complain.