Today I learned that Etta James covered Alice Cooper’s Only Women Bleed.
I am hearing it right now on BB King’s Bluesville.
Whichever idiot looked at a mini-SIM and thought “this is too big” deserves a slap to the face, and whichever blistering moron looked at the micro-SIM and thought “this is still too big” deserves a punch in the nose. Manipulating nano-SIMs is always a fiddly unnecessarily difficult business, but i dropped it whilst changing phones, and I can’t find it. That’s £40 PAYG credit down the drain as O2 are asking me security questions I don’t know the answer to, and I can’t prove my identity as they don’t have an owner listed. Fuck you SIM guy.
You must really hate eSIMS, because they are completely digital. Good like finding electrons when you drop them.
I’ve spent maybe the last 3 days in an agony of indecision about the ex’s Camry (actually, my son’s former car, but she’s the registered owner). She’s offering it to me for substantially less than the wholesale blue-book value, and it’s been scrupulously maintained. It’s also an upgrade model with things like heated leather seats and a sunroof. But my gut instinct is to decline it, as much as it pains me. Money is still money, and it’s only a few years newer than my current beater, so despite vaunted Toyota reliability something big may still go wrong with it. If something goes wrong with the current one, at least I’ll have more money to address it, or if it’s something really major, I can junk it with no great loss and then deal with that issue.
We have a long Canadian Thanksgiving weekend coming up so the ex has given me until Tuesday to make a decision, which just means three more days of indecisive agony. She’s been very accommodating but frustratingly neutral, saying it was my decision and she was happy either way.
I hate life, especially retired life when a nice new car is not realistic for a dog on a fixed income!
IMO … your existing rustbucket is vastly more likely to have a failure than the newer better car. Whether we’re talking a cheap $300 failure or a gut wrenching $5K failure. The rustbucket is also more likely to have the more expensive kind than is the newer car.
You’re never going to find another scrupulously maintained Camry on super sale. Your ex is offering you a large gift that likely can’t / won’t be repeated. If cash is tight, turning down a gift seems ill-advised.
The exception would be if you have reason to believe your driving days are almost over. But I don’t get the impression that’s the case.
Rather, I expect the rustbucket will quit before you do. Leaving you to buy something else then that’s not on sale when your remaining driving years are less than it has left. That’s real inefficient.
Thanks, I sincerely appreciate the input. I will continue to ponder over the long weekend. Part of the problem is that ingestion of Caesars and/or rum greatly changes my outlook on things, so I appreciate sober advice. At least, I assume you’re sober! 
One thing for sure, I’d never find a deal like this on the open market. The ex even has a big file on every single thing that’s been done to the car, including oil changes, since it left the showroom.
I was when I started.
But I was working through a red wine w dinner while I typed. And am now enjoying a companion 2nd wine for dessert. So any further advice is increasingly suspect.
Back to the car …
Sounds like you’re spiraling towards the crack the very poor deal with every day. Namely that doing the long term economically efficient thing is short term unaffordable. So they’re stuck doing it the inefficient expensive way in the short term. But permanently. Which becomes long term.
In your better-off case this dilemma only bites on big ticket things like cars or residences. One heck of a lot of middle class folks on both sides of the border are in your boat.
Only you can evaluate the “Can I afford to be efficient?” trade-off. Good luck however you decide.
Today at dinner, I reviewed the Bill of Rights with my son, and then he wanted to know all 27 amendments, and for me to explain each one.
I’m pretty sure I botched a lot of that, including trying to explain slavery to a (very smart) five year old, and well, let’s just hope I have more chances to get it right before he starts talking to other people about it. I think I did a pretty shit job trying to explain it all.
The good news is he wants to come with us next time we vote. I told him I voted Harris for President, and she lost, and now people are passing a bunch of laws I don’t agree with. He wanted me to list all the criminal laws.
Then he asked me if I’ve ever broken the law! I told him I drank alcohol at age 19 at his great Aunt’s house and she let me do it! Scandal!
These are the perils of radical honesty with your child.
You just bought a new fridge too, right? So the idea of spending more must be daunting. But I agree it sounds like a good opportunity. Those cars are famous fir their longevity if maintained well, and it sounds like this was.
FWIW, we inherited my mom’s old GM car, and I took it in for what I assumed was a simple problem… and it ended up needing a rebuild of part of the engine!
I complained that it wasn’t old enough to need major work, and the mechanic said “You’re too optimistic, because you’ve owned Toyotas. No other car lasts like a well-cared-for Toyota.”
(That’s what I had, until an 18-wheeler ran a stop light and t-boned it…)
The lovely ex-wife’s last word on the subject, other than saying that with the long weekend I may as well take the whole weekend to think about it, was “the universe will point you in the right direction. What is meant to be.” Frustratingly neutral again, and something of a mystic, too!
Here’s the God’s honest truth about the two cars:
Sebring:
I used to say that after all these years, everything on it still works. This is becoming less and less true. The catalytic converter is bust, causing the “Check Engine” light to come on, but it’s been working that way for years. Now the A/C is bust. It needs new front brakes.
Camry:
Everything works. Luxury model. Has minor dent on rear quarter panel due to my son’s erratic driving. 2" wider and slightly longer than the Sebring, so will have to clear out some junk from the garage in which the Sebring is already a tight fit. Frankly, the Sebring rust bucket has a more sporty driving feel, while the Camry feels more like an old man’s dog’s car in terms of road feel, but both cars are peppy V6s.
I need more rum!!
Yep. $1200 worth! I love it, though. Haven’t had a brand new fridge in a long, long time and never a modern one like this!
Help! I’m in indecision hell!!
Your old car is an ancient Chrysler?. Good gawd man dawg, pitch that time bomb and live a riskfree motoring life for the rest of your life.
I bet you’ll experience similar elation w the Camry even though it’s not brand new.
I know, I know. I used to own a Dodge Caravan. The thing is, this particular Sebring was a low-mileage acquisition and has been uncharacteristically reliable for many years, but it clearly has issues, not the least of which is the body rust.
Your credibility is lacking because, by your own admission, you’re no longer sober (and neither am I)! But your point is well taken. I believe I’m pretty much convinced that a Toyota Camry LE will be my next car sometime next week!
And thank you to all who contributed!
ETA: As for disposing of the Sebring, the ex (who knows all) informs me that the Ontario Kidney Foundation will give you a $600 charitable tax credit for a used car.
Fortunately my clinic doesn’t do this. They do have a TV running, but the volume is low enough that it is easily ignored.
The ER at the hospital I get taken to, however, is a different matter. The TV there is on one of the sports channels at a volume that’s impossible to ignore.
i am shocked by the parents’ behaviour, holy wow! (If i ever encountered similar i am afraid i would rummage through the condiment drawer and throw in a few ketchups and soy sauces.)
Congrats on your new appliance.. although i long for the days when refrigerators, washers and the like were lasting 20+ years, and not objects of planned adoleacence.
i agree that boundaries have to be set. Good for you!
In my area (where it’s never colder than 55°F), we have parents driving their primary school-aged kids house to house.
I’m mostly sober. Add me as yet another vote for the Camry. I had my Prius V for ten years before selling it to my son. Damn if it weren’t the single most reliable car I’d ever owned. It was also boring as fuck to drive, but it was reliable.
I forgot to add, I had my Toyota Echo for 17 years before finally trading it in to buy a new one. It was still a good car but it was time for a change. That thing was reliable, the worst thing that happened to me was a belt that wore out and broke and a heat pump that burst. Otherwise it was solid. Got me through some tough spots too.
Ditto, if only for the seat warmers (aka rump roasters)!
… and one in the penis.
I’m not a car expert, but am completely sober (I do not drink or partake of recreational chemicals at all. My biggest vice in that direction is caffeine, taken in carbonated form).
I would consider the Camry too good a deal to pass up if you can swing the price your ex is willing to sell to you for (and on a side note, I’m impressed by how amicable you and your ex apparently are).
From your description, the Camry is newer and in much better condition, so can most likely expect a longer remaining service life, and I do agree with the poster who thinks the Sebring, being older and already in iffier condition, is the more likely to have an expen$ive failure. If your luck is anything like mine, this failure will also occur at the worst time it can come up with to do so.