I have a CR online subscription, which I find really useful. One good thing about their overall discussions of cars is the focus on safety features. Their top cars in this class are the Altima V6, Accord and Camry V6, but all of yours are recommended. While I'm sure other people have had good experiences, I am not a fan of Ford. There are many reasons, but one of them is that Ford's corporate representatives were mean to my mother. I don't hold many grudges, but the ones I hold, I hold tightly.

Signed, Has Not Purchased Anything from Exxon Since 1989

Yeah, safety ratings are important too. All of those choices have good safety ratings (all but the Camry and Altima are close to 10). I have appointments to drive the Fusion and Altima today, and I'll see if I can walk in for the Mazda and Chevy dealerships that haven't gotten back to me from the Internet yet. I hope to try the Sonata tomorrow; it's in San Leandro. Hyundai is intriguing because they're cheap and offer the best warranty. They don't have a good reliability score on U.S. News, though. This is all very confusing.

One thing I really like about the Camry is that it has knee airbags. I wish that were standard. I always worry about that. And although the Malibu looks good, there was a troubling statement about the crash tests: "Forces on the right tibia indicate that injuries to the lower leg would be possible." I don't know if that's something to freak out about. (Oh, they have that same statement for the Ford Fusion, and it's still a Top Safety Pick. And that car even has possible neck injuries as well. Altima has no warnings. Mazda has the leg thing. Eep, Sonata does not look like it takes side impact as well. I'll keep that in mind if I think I might like it. Camry, of course, has great safety all around. It's the safe choice in more ways than one.)

I was going to say that we have one of the CR annual report books floating around our place and it's yours for the asking, but it sounds like you've already got everything you need off their website.

(Our new old car? Even at 10 years old, still on CR's top 5 most reliable used cars list. Our old old car? On the CR top 5 suck-ass 4-wheeled money pit list.)

So I thin Rose spent most of the day trapped and wedged behind the washer. I took the folding doors off and pushed the dryer over more so she can get out (I think).

Sadie is hiding behind my couch and hissed at me. Not hissed like Rose, but years flattened and then growled. With Rose, if she hisses, I just put my hand down and pet her. With Sadie. I felt like she might take my hand off.

I'm sure Sadie would be doing better if she knew where Rose was. I'm doing a load of laundry and kinda hoping the dryer sounds will scare Rose out. Id on't think she's STUCK but if she doesn't wander around tonight I'll know to be worried.

This getting a new cat thing is not easy. Maybe I should have gotten a kitten.

P-C, I know you don't want to buy the car that everyone has, but there *is* a reason that everyone has Camrys -- they really do last forEVER.

Unless, of course, you don't want to keep a car forever; I know plenty of people who prefer to have a new(er) car every 3-4 years.

Camrys are also the cars that get stolen the most.

Mom~ma, Aims.

Aims, how's your mom doing? All kinds of ~ma your way!

Tonight, work is renting the space out to the Museum, since the King Tut exhibit is too big. So I'm running sound on a poetry thing. Pretty cool.

PC, there are some car rental places over near the Oakland Airport that sell rental cars after X,000 miles. Several people at work have bought cars there and been very, very happy with them. Course, most of them bought Camry's or Corolla's. Toyotas are very good, speaking as someone whose owned 2 of them. Or, there's this guy who only sells used Subarus up near Santa Rosa: [link] I love my Forester.

Camrys are also the cars that get stolen the most.

Heh. In that case, buy you a Ford goddamn Tempo (the car that is responsible for my own lifelong grudge against Ford). Ain't nobody going to steal that thing.

I guess the Camry theft makes sense statistically, given the sheer numbers of ownership.

My dear departed Camry (Sherman) was a 1991, and I drove it until 2000, so it was old enough that I never thought of it as thief bait.

Toyotas are very good, speaking as someone whose owned 2 of them.

Totally! Toyota won me over with my old Camry, and Spud the Echo is continuing the trend. I fucking LOVE my Echo.