Freecycle

If you have something you don't need anymore, but it's something that someone else can use, don't throw it out. The landfills are full enough. There's a website called freecycle.org that helps people find others that are looking for used items or that have used items to give away.

I just gave away an old laptop that I no longer need. Someone put out a request for one, and I was able to help out. It's an old one that I bought back in 1999 (ancient by today's standards) It's a 300-Mhz Pentium II with 320 megs of ram. That thing cost me $3,000.00 when I bought it, and I took out a twelve-month loan to pay it off. Noe I'm giving it away because I doubt I could more than a few bucks for it today. That's OK, the couple I gave it to looked like they were just starting out their lives together, and they could use the savings.

http://www.freecycle.org/ - join today!

So much for updating this every day.

Anyway, I bought a car. Got a Miata, as planned. It's exactly what I wanted - Sport trim with Automatic Transmission. I popped for the added ground effects package and rear lip spoiler. They don't do anything for the car except make it look cool, but that's what I want.

Oh, and now it's only called an MX-5. Mazda is trying to drop the "Miata" name, but the Miata die-hards won't let it go. But you can look at the car from end to end and you won't see a "Miata" logo anywhere on it.

Anyway, I'm tired, so to make a long story short, I put out an Internet request for a price quote and the dealer called me a few hours later with an offer of $500.00 below invoice ($22,170). I thought that was an amazing steal, but it turns out it was just a good price - but a good price all the same. I talked to him, we went for a test ride, and we inked the deal. I felt it was a fair price, so there was no haggling. They gave me $9,250.00 for my old car, which was $150 below blue book, but it had a few defects, so I accepted it. Altogether it was a smooth transaction. They came on a little strong with offering their own financing, but I stuck with my Credit Union. My payments are $70.00 a week, but I'm going to triple up on payments and hopefully have it paid off in a year.

Doing what I do

Spent the last few days tuning up computers. A woman at work said hers has been running very slow lately ansked me to clean it up for her. LOADED with spyware and probably also a virus or two, because Windows Update was disabled. Even after running all my first aid software, it was still borked, so I got her OK to just go ahead and reformat it.

Her husband's computer is in even worse shape, but he said he can't even tell the difference, so she said just make sure there's no viruses or spyware on it. A malware scan showed 350 infected files. This could be a long night.

Miata vs. Miata

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Miata vs. Miata

I've spent the last week or so weighing the options on a new Miata. Mine is seven years old and I want to sell it before things start breaking down. Up until today I had been doing all my research online, seeing what costs what, and which is worth the price. This morning I printed up a list of questions and went to a dealer just to get more info. He didn't know much more than I had already learned from looking online, and they didn't have any cars loaded with the options that I wanted to see in person.

Still, I took one for a ride. Rides nice, smoother than mine, and it has more pickup. I thought the radio sounded terrible, but that's probably because it had 6 speakers. That's supposed to be an upgrade from the standard four-speaker system, but the extra two speakers are tweeters mounted near the tops of the doors, and since they're closer to your ears you hear mostly high-end frequencies. The 8" speakers were at the bottoms of the doors. There are also two mid-range between the seats which were probably about 4" each, so they didn't help any. Even after tweaking the tone controls there still wasn't enough bass without it getting muddy.

The other big - BIG negative was the interior. Pretty ugly compared to mine. The dash has a big black plexiglass strip running along the front of it, and the doors and top of the dash were vinyl, but not even a faux leather looking vinyl like mine, just a flat, grainy plastic. VERY cheap looking.

Now that I've seen and driven a 2008, I can accurately compare it to mine. I listed all the pros and cons that are included with the trim model I'll be getting:

What's better on mine:
Interior Appearance
Retractable Antenna (the one on the 2008 is not retractable, but I can probably replace that)

What's better on the 2008 model:
Stronger Engine
Rear Speakers (mine doesn't have them)
Dual 1-touch Window (mine only does the driver side)
More Interior Room
Better windblocking with the top down
Smoother Ride
Cruise Control (mine doesn't have)
Ignition Keyhole Light (mine doesn't have)
Tilt Wheel (mine doesn't have)
MP3 Player (mine doesn't have)
Side-Impact Airbags (mine only has them in front)
Tire Pressure meter (mine doesn't have)
Engine Theft Immobilizer (mine doesn't have)
Side-Window de-mister (mine doesn't have)
Wheel-mounted audio & speed controls (mine doesn't have)

I plan to buy one near the end of the month. Pics will be posted if that happens.