It was a warm day in June when MM (Mazda Millenia) first came to us. I received the driver's call and then heard the sound of the transporter truck before it was actually visible. Unfortunately, I had to walk for some distance as the truck could not enter our narrow old street. Finally, I could see the dusty black Mazda. This was the culmination of many months of searching and waiting. The car was loaded mid-truck amongst a number of other various vehicles. It had taken nearly a month to arrive in New York from it's long-standing home in the southwest. How it came to be in New York's Hudson Valley is an interesting story. (Or at least I think so.)
But first a word from our sponsor.
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More below the dkos pasta thing.
This story actually starts months before that day in June 2009. Our old 2002 Mazda Millenia was having a number of issues. Of course it had well over 100,000 miles on the odometer by that point in time. Amongst those issues was a misfiring problem that baffled 2 different mechanics. Two of its 6 cylinders were out of sync.
We decided to sell the car and look for another one of the same type. That car was actually Millenia number 3. There were 2 earlier ones. Millenia number 2 left our custody when a large old tree decided to drop a branch on it during a violent storm. madame boran was driving it at the time and somehow managed to get the thing home in one heavily damaged piece, but that is a story for another day.
A short book could be written about the Mazda Millenia. It was Mazda's attempt to play in the big leagues. That is, Mazda was attempting to compete with the heavy-hitter luxury brands. The Millenia was a stunning achievement for a Japanese manufacturer at the time of its release in North America in 1995. With a sophisticated chassis and style, and an available supercharged engine, it put Mazda in an entirely new segment of the market. But poor marketing and high prices doomed it. (The supercharged version sold for a cool $35, 595.00 in 1995!) The car sold in limited numbers and soldiered on through the 2002 model year at which time it was withdrawn from the market without replacement. It became a footnote to automotive history.
But what was bad for Mazda was good for clan boran. I had admired the Millenia from its initial introduction. Poor sales and steep depreciation made late model used preowned examples affordable. The result was our serial ownership.
The quest for Millenia number 4 took place mostly on the internet. This was to be a new-fangled search. I began by limiting my search to cars within easily travelled distances. But finding a car that was last built 7 years earlier and was sold in only limited numbers was no easy task. There were only a few available within a radius of 100 miles. Those cars generally had high mileage and had seen multiple northeastern winters with all the nasty roadsalt fixings. We decided to look farther afield.
There are lots of sites on the intertoobz to search for both new and used cars. One of my favorites is cars.com. cars.com has more listings than most other similar sites. (There was only one that came close and the name now escapes me. Duh.) When searching for a particular vehicle, distance parameters can be set according to one's preferences. Eventually we used the maximum parameters (2500 miles) just to see what was available. This essentially made it a nationwide search. Our goal was to find the best combination of low price and low mileage.
MM kept coming up in the top 10 or 15 vehicles included in the search results. But it took some time for me to accept that MM was actually what we sought. (It had only 51 thousand miles and had spent its entire life in the dry Nevada/southwestern Utah area.) I made many phone calls to dealers in various states, all resulting in some objection to the particular subject vehicle. All this while, MM actually started to move up in the search result rankings, eventually residing comfortably within the top ten vehicles. I had balked earlier mostly because of the distance from our home. MM was at a Buick/Chevy dealer in Cedar City, Utah. We would be paying to transport whatever car we bought and greater distance meant greater cost. (Yes, it would have been far easier to buy something from the local dealer but we sometimes willingly choose the road less taken at casa boran.) I like to imagine the face of the salesperson during the first phone contact upon hearing that I was calling his rural Utah facility from New York about one of his vehicles. Surely he thought I was a prankster, at least for a moment or two.
There were other concerns. MM actually had 2 earlier owners, both for rather short periods. (Each for 2 and a fraction years) Also, MM had been on the sales lot for some 14 months, a virtual eternity for a car dealer. Was there a problem? (Of course the upside of those 14 months, in part, is lower vehicle miles.)
We had been able to learn all of this history because of our purchase of a Carfax report. Carfax reports set forth the history of a vehicle's accident, title and use histories. I highly recommend acquiring a Carfax report for used preowned vehicle purchases. MM's report was unremarkable but for the aforesaid chain of ownership. (Not that it would be unsusual for what was then a 7 year old vehicle to have multiple owners.) Another good idea is a professional inspection if there is any cause for concern. We scheduled an inspection by a specialized company prior to finalizing the purchase. A couple of days after our call the company sent out an inspector to the dealer's facility. He went over all aspects of the car, driving it and taking photos. A report was e-mailed to us with the photos included. As such, we were able to proceed with confidence that we were not headed for disaster. All of this alleviated concerns about buying a car sight unseen, probably not something for the faint of heart.
Now you may be wondering about the cost of the transport and inspection added to what is already a major purpose for most folks. MM's price was well below what we would have paid here in the east for a comparable local car. Adding in the additional expenditures would bring the cost closer to the price of those local cars but don't forget that there was low miles and little/none corrosion underneath the vehicle. And these were the primary reasons for going to these lengths. (Though there was fine red desert dust in every crevice of the car.) In all likelihood, the total cost was probably still comfortably under an east coast price for a comparable car. In fact, it would have been worth paying a premium had that been necessary.
Today MM is now 10 model years old with just over 70,000 miles. (MM's actual birthday is in May) MM is still a joy to drive. We have been mostly happy with few surprises. Buying a car this way might seem a little crazy. And maybe it was. We haven't done anything like this since, and I'm not sure that we would do it again. Our subsequent purchase of a replacement for our other car was done conventionally at a local dealer. But I can't say that I regret our experience with MM.
And on to the nominations:
From Carolita:
ontheleftcoast cooks up the perfect recipe to make GOP talking points palatable in MBNYC's diary, Quel domage.
GrumpyOldGeek has all the inside info on how Laffer, Heritage Foundation, ALEC, Tim LaHaye, the dominionist Council for Naitonal Policy and MITTENS! are all involved in the Ponzi scheme lawsuit in MNDem999's Laffer not Laughing diary.
From Ms Citizen:
nominating quaoar's comment on Laura Clawson's diary. Note the irony of 25 years old with 25 years of experience.
From JanF:
If no one sent in this punny thread begun by quannabbos from Giles Goat Boy's diary, they should have!
From Horace Boothroyd III:
Here's one from ontheleftcoast from my post Oh How I Needed This:Watch as Santorum Gets Joansmacked.
Top Mojo for yesterday, January 12, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic!
1) I am so sorry that is what it took for the man by middleagedhousewife — 206
2) And that by clarknyc — 133
3) And He Likes Talking About Firing Just As Bush by Gooserock — 110
4) At some point the Girl Scouts... by detroitmechworks — 105
5) It is so good to see you! by Aji — 101
6) your very welcome. it kind of took my breath away. by dear occupant — 95
7) Go To Ed's Radio Show Web Site, Contact the by Gooserock — 85
8) The love you and Ann put into the quilts by SallyCat — 81
9) Wow.... what a phone call.... by Proud Mom and Grandma — 80
10) I probably will go by Sara R — 79
11) i have to give this man a lot of credit saying by dear occupant — 76
12) As an old school Journamalism major... by Richard Cranium — 76
13) That is a brilliant observation by Seneca Doane — 75
14) Very close to recalling Scott Fitzgerald. by Giles Goat Boy — 73
15) He knew before Bain bought by stlkaper — 73
16) A victory for the cellphone users of America by ontheleftcoast — 71
17) shorter: It's not envy. Mitt. Regular people by mdmslle — 68
18) I had the same reaction..... by princesspat — 66
19) Typical by Steven D — 65
20) It's GOP thinking by Puddytat — 64
21) hugs! by indiemcemopants — 64
22) I always appreciated this proposal: by Pluto — 63
23) I have many angels around me -- by Sara R — 62
24) I fully support this initiative! by blue aardvark — 62
25) They are an entire cruise ship of evil clowns, by concernedamerican — 61
26) Not fun. by Lightbulb — 61
27) so glad to see you by Mnemosyne — 60
28) Here's the thing: by Bindle — 60
29) "Please describe the foundations of your faith..." by G2geek — 59
30) You Wrote About It Eloquently Too by Empower Ink — 59
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Top Pictures for yesterday, January 12th. Thank you jotter for the image magic!