At a Loss, so It's Cars

I'm experiencing my first bout of blogger's angst this morning: what to write? I'm in no mood to consider anything political, as a matter of fact I'm resolved to completely avoid the NYT and the WaPo today. One of the best New Years resolutions I read this past week came in the form of a suggested action:

"Minimize negative input; cancel your subscription to the New York Times."

While I'm not a subscriber, I do have the Times (both the London and New York varieties), the WaPo, and the Guardian bookmarked. Reading the news invariably gets me exercised, which substantiates and validates the suggestion about minimizing negative input. So today I will take a break from all things political, even as The Usual Suspects return to Washington and gear up for confirmation hearings, investigative hearings, and other forms of ritualistic dung-throwing. A pox on their houses.

Yesterday was brilliant. I got a great night's sleep, awoke early, read some great stuff, exchanged New Year's greetings with old friends via e-mail, and drove over to Clovis in the early morn for breakfast. I drove over to Clovis with the top up; it was chilly at 8:30 a.m., somewhere in the mid-fifties. After a huge and very satisfying breakfast I ran the car through the car wash and motored on out to the base.

I got a huge and pleasant surprise on the base: I saw my first Pontiac Solstice. Portales/Clovis isn't the capital of American Kar Kulture, not by any stretch of the imagination, unless your particular niche is pick-ups. You'll see any number of ultra-new Dodge Hemi-powered pickups, Ford F-450 diesel dualies, and the like in and around Portales. But cutting edge cars? Nope. The new Corvette has been on the market for nearly two years and I haven't seen a single example on the local roads, nor has the local Chevy dealer had one on the lot, as far as I can tell. So it was a big surprise to see a Solstice on the base, especially considering I've read Pontiac's entire production run for 2006 is sold out.

I'll be in the market for a new car around the middle of next year, and right now the short-list includes the new Miata and the Solstice. I have had extreme good luck with my Miata (knock on wood); everything still works, it starts every morning right on cue, it's relatively cheap to run, and above all: it's a freaking BLAST to drive. And all this after over five years of ownership. Positive experiences like this tend to breed owner loyalty. The Solstice is in second place as a candidate replacement for the Green Hornet at the moment, especially after I did three parking lot walk-arounds of the shiny black-on-black example I saw yesterday.

To begin with, I'm not impressed with the car's real-world appearance; there's something about the car I can't quite put my finger on. The Solstice looks pretty good in pictures, but in reality the large expanse of front-end paint coupled with small grille openings are out of proportion. The car also has a high belt line that would appear to make hanging your arm on the door sill uncomfortable, if not impossible. Overall, I'm not impressed with the Solstice's design, now that I've seen one in the flesh. I don't think I'd trade my current Miata for a new Solstice, based on appearances alone. Appearance isn't everything, of course. I've not seen a new Miata so I can't make a direct comparison of the two cars.

I'm a "buy and hold" kind of guy when it comes to cars; I don't change cars every two years or so. Given that fact, I make my automotive purchases after a LOT of careful consideration. The process has begun, and the Solstice isn't in the lead. A pity, that. I SO wanted to want one, badly. The "Buy American" impulse is very strong at the moment, especially since GM is in such dire straits. But I won't buy second-best.

So. It was just after 11:00 a.m. when I left the base and the temp had climbed up into the mid-60s. The top came down and I enjoyed an alfresco 80-mph ride between the base and home. It's a wonderful thing when you can motor briskly down the road on the third of January with the top down. And not have to deal with traffic or assorted Weird-Os. Wonderful, indeed.