Buying a car without driving it first seems like a really bad idea to me. Even if you know nothing about how cars work, you'll know if you feel comfortable in the car, if it has good visibility, and things like that.

Look for a car ...guy . we have a guy in our area - that will charge you 500 for a used car and the dealr pays if it is new. So you have to know what you want - but he can help you narrow thing s down.

I just wish I knew what to call him ...auto broker maybe?

I am so sorry, Sheryl and ita. And lots of migraine-go-away~ma to Suzi (there is always some going to ita, but apparently it's not very effective, for which I'm also so sorry).

Matilda Easter update: My dad took us to his golf club, which was having an Easter event for all the members' families. We got there just as the egg hunt was beginning, and oh was she jazzed about getting to do a second egg hunt in a single Easter. Jazzed, that is, until she saw the actual egg hunt, which was really an egg free-for-all, with eggs scattered all over the green in plain sight, with one roped-off section for toddlers and another for 6 and overs.

Matilda was having exactly none of it. She scoped it all out, turned her back, and said disdainfully, "How is that a hunt? The eggs are all just lying around where anyone can see them. THIS IS NOT A FUN EGG HUNT." Fortunately, there was also a petting zoo (baby goats!) and a pair of rescue ponies happily lippity-lopping around the little stand of trees where the deer come to graze at sunset, so she didn't have time to get seriously bent out of shape or weepy about it. But oh, her scorn was magnificent.

Her scorn was well-deserved.

Indeed it was.

Also: ita - I believe that all fruit is better w/o refrigeration.

FWIW, years ago I DID buy a car without driving it (I rode in it while a trustworthy friend who knew stick drove). Yes, I bought a car and THEN learned how to drive stick shift. IIRC I had $3000 to spend so I had to figure out how to get the most bang for my buck, so a 1978 Honda Accord (when they were teeny compacts) was it.

It worked out fine, and I had the car for 8 years until it died of body rust.

Yeah, I've done it too and it worked out okay. But it is a gamble.

I once taught someone to drive stick after he bought a stick shift car. I remember he killed the engine at stop lights regularly, and then yelled at the drivers getting impatient behind him.

When it came time to teach Tony, I took him to an empty parking lot late at night. So nobody cared when he killed the engine.

Internet and phone went out at 8:45. Guess who's sitting at Panera, trying to work? Library doesn't open until noon.

I miss the knowledge of driving stick. But I think part of me bristles at the (not here) subtext that it's for "real" people, or it's what "real driving" is about. Why do people do that? Is it just because it's harder?

(When I learnt to drive the second time, it was automatic. The first time, almost ten years later, was stick shift. I was good enough with it to be ready to test, just circumstances conspired to prevent me from taking it. Initially driving automatic felt weird, like there weren't enough things to centre me on the fact that I was driving and it made me worry that I could zone out, but complex processes can become automatic (API) too--it just takes a little more time.)

I'm sorry the migraine knocked you out, Suzi. Somehow I feel responsibility when other people get migraines, like they're mine to dole out or deny.

All regard § ita § and despair. Or at least burrow under a pile of blankets in a quiet room.

eta: The second time I learnt manual it was in a parking lot. The second time I learnt to drive, it was at 5am through the suburbs. That was effective, even if my aunt working charts (doctor) during didn't inspire me with feels of safety.