BeHelsbyBug...

Isn't she beautiful????

Andy's car died it's final death a few weeks ago -- the trunk/boot broke and he couldn't drive it anywhere because if the boot/trunk wouldn't close then someone could get into the car through the back seat and steal things like outdated Lowe's flyers etc... (giggling -- I'm teasing Andy because he's always filling the vehicles with store-spam... he can't go into a store without picking up leaflets/flyers/pamphlets... and they all end up in whatever vehicle he arrived at said store in!)... back to seriousness though -- because of work he keeps a number of things that cannot be left in vulnerable situations like that -- data tapes etc. that he'd get into big trouble over if they went missing...

so we were worried about fixing up the dead car to make it appealing to dealers as a trade-in... Andy hasn't exactly had loads of free time and the free time he has had (well read back a few entries -- he's got a list of stuff to work on!!)... so it was a concern...

and when we started to think about getting a new (to us) car... we kind of both arrived on the "we want something unique and kind of fun" page at the same moment... and we both arrived from that page onto the "we want a Bug or a Mini" paragraph on that page... it was kind of neat how we both agreed on what we want (anyone who's been married for longer than a year can attest to how nice and sometimes rare that is)...

so... I know my husband... he loves to research. And I knew, that left to his own devices... he would research for a year and then finally make a move to test drive a car... so I pointed out that there's no point in starting the research until we've actually SAT in both types of cars... because it doesn't matter for beans if a Mini gets the best gas mileage ever and has the coolest cult-following-groups, if it has not enough leg and elbow room for the two of us...

thankfully he agreed. so one evening I dragged him out (in some pretty serious heat -- it was like 92 degrees and it was after 6pm!!) to a local used car dealership that I thought (from my own searches online) would be the one-stop shop place where we could sit in both a Mini and a Bug that evening... but no dice... only a Mini was there. On the website they advertise that they have a Bug, but the sales guy said they haven't had a Bug on their lot for 6 months. (which shows the staying power of the car -- if people don't want to trade it in because they love it!) So we sat in the Mini (it was a cute one too -- bright metallic blue) and it surprisingly had good leg room -- of course the back seat was useless except for luggage etc., but as we don't have kiddos (and probably won't have kiddos) it doesn't matter to us... but the elbow room was close. We weren't touching sitting side by side but there was only maybe an inch or two between our two elbows... it was close. So we thanked the nice sales guy and left.

And focused our attentions on Bugs. We drove from there over to a dealership we know has Bugs (because early on in our life here in Dublin it became disqualified in the "slugbug" game -- no dealerships allowed)... but they had closed for the evening. We just walked around and looked at the different cars they had available -- new and used. We were surprised at how the bugs really held their resale value. We talked about how we'd like it to have a tape deck (because we both have iPods and the cassette converters to be able to play our iPods through the car stereo) and my dream car would be a stick -- I wanted a stick-shift when we bought the Buick but they had none on the lot... So we went back a few days later to sit in one when the dealership was open. A very nice guy came out and helped us... we sat in the showroom models -- a convertible (again a beautiful metallic blue) and the Triple-white Special Edition model... convertible (new) costing $26,000 and spec. ed model costing $25,000 (also new). They had 3 or 4 more new Bugs on the lot ranging from $21,000 to $23,000 depending on features -- the $23,000 had a spoiler and fancy 17inch wheels with fancy hubs...

Then he told us about the bi-color Bug. Only $13,999 -- 2005, all the standard features, special limited edition (you'll have to ask Andy about how many were made etc.) it was to celebrate the older style of Beetle they used to make that had two colors -- one color was the main body and the other was the door panels etc.

So we test drove it -- and found the brakes a bit mooshy and grindy... (yes, those ARE the technical terms for that! :P ) came back from the test drive and he mentioned our options and kind of gave us a deadline because another couple really liked the car too -- but since we'd driven it first we would be given first refusal.

Next day my Dad and I went back over and Dad test drove it, checked it out (yes, he even kicked the tires) and then we put a $500 hold on it for the weekend (to give Andy his time for "research") -- me? I was ready to just buy it, but I knew I had to just be patient.

Then the discussions of whose car it would be began... in the end, it was agreed (amicably without any shouting even!!) that I would drive it during the week and he would drive it evenings and weekends -- because he's really hard on cars that he goes to and from work in -- and there was no way he was gonna trash that beautiful lil car!! Besides... he drives a company car everywhere once he gets to work anyhow.... so she'd just be driven to his office, and then sit there all day looking fun and cute and then get brought home.... no way!

Another fun discussion was what license plate to get for her... Andy wants something with "BUG" in it -- so we were laughing about all the british phrases with the word Bug in them and how his mum would have a coronary if she found out he got something like B*GGERALL as a license plate (not that he ever would -- but the idea of it was hilarious)

so as of now we are still looking for ideas of what plate to get... but she has unofficially been named "BeHelsbyBug" and also "Yady".... (by my dad -- yadybug is how my niece says ladybug)

isn't she funnn????

Posted by kristen at June 21, 2008 11:31 AM