Wheels

I'm getting to do a lot of new things lately.

I've never selected my own home before. I've never had to clean my own gutters either, or deal with rotten leaf-clogs in them. I've never had to figure out how to carry heavy purchases like furniture into my house. I've never had to do my home repairs solo. I've never bought my own car. Heck, I've never even changed a tire!

My almost-ex (let's call him aex for short... I always hated the stbx expression) bought all of my vehicles, with not a lot of input from me. I chose my bicycles, but he chose the motorized transportation devices.

But my most recent vehicle is nearing 8 years and 150,000 miles. And while we had the engine rebuilt last fall due to leaking head gaskets, I still don't know how much longer a Chevy minivan can be expected to last.

It makes me nervous having to rely on a vehicle all by myself. What if something goes wrong with it. How do I get it in to get it worked on when it's just me... it's not like I can tow myself! I don't like to have to rely on someone else, so I always want my contingency plan in place.

Which in this case, means I'm looking for a car. Oh, and can it be red please? Or at least SOME bright, pretty color like a royal blue?

I've narrowed my selections down somewhat. I'm looking for a good used 4-door sedan, for $10,000 or less (preferably less of course) and with under 100,000 miles (preferably less again. duh!) I initially started looking in the $4-6,000 price range and quickly realized that a 10-15 year old car nearing 200,000 miles probably wasn't the best way to spend my money.

I want something that can be expected to go many, many more miles with minimal issues, so I went to a few review sites and narrowed down a list of good used cars to consider. My short list includes (in no particular order):

• Mazda 6
• Toyota Camry or Prius
• Honda Accord
• Ford Fusion
• Mercury Milan
• Nissan Altima

I have not yet looked at model years or suggested price ranges to get an idea which of the above could even be feasible. But I think that the Altima, Mazda6, and Accord are probably my top 3.

Yesterday a smart-ass friend of mine noted that red cars get more speeding tickets, and suggested that I might be better off NOT getting a red car. (Yes, I did get two speeding tickets in under a year, requiring me to take an online defensive driving course to avoid a suspended license. Thank you for pointing that out. *mutter* No, I won't give you the benefit of admitting you might be right.)

Right now I am eying a 2005 White Altima with about 86,000 miles. They're asking about $11,000 but I might be able to get them down to my price limit. I just wish it were red.

So given my short list of models... any recommendations?