My partner Mike likes cars. To be honest, he loves cars. He grew up in L.A. When the temperature heats up, there’s no place he’d rather be than on the boulevard of cars in Van Nuys, test driving Audis and BMWs and Infinities. On hot days like that, my thoughts turn to the beach with a cool breeze blowing off the ocean. While he’s dreaming of a revving engine, and ever more ways of spewing carbon into the skies above LA, I’m thinking of checking the “Heal the Bay” water quality report online and body surfing in three-foot swells.
Mike likes to lease cars, very expensive cars. I constantly tease him that he thinks “The car is the temple of the soul.” My father also loved cars, he bought a new one every two years. This was the sixties, and he drove American cars. He was a traveling salesman per se. Actually, he sold small group health insurance predominantly to cheese factories in central Wisconsin where I grew up. (a very lucrative business as you might have guessed).
My father said that he couldn’t be stuck on a country road on a cold January day in below zero temps in a broken down car. And, at that time, American cars were not entirely reliable beyond a certain mileage, so he got a new car when the old one clocked in at around 30,000 miles or so. My father said he would never be caught dead in a Ford. I currently drive a Ford Escape.
Last fourth of July I finally talked Mike into going to Venice beach for a skate and a swim before watching fireworks. He reluctantly agreed. On the way west on the 10, I noticed blue smoke billowing out of my tail pipe. “What’s that?” I asked Mike as I drove, “Blue smoke,” he said. “Blue smoke coming out of your tail pipe because you drive a Ford, and Fords are cheap.” So much for a clinical analysis of the problem. Within two miles my gas pedal wasn’t working and I was calling AAA for a tow back to my mechanic. It turns out a piece of metal had punctured my radiator, and leaked all the transmission fluid out of my engine. Had I driven another mile or two I would have ruined the engine. Thank god I didn’t. That car is paid for and I hope to drive it for another ten years. I told Mike I thought he’d cursed my Ford to get out of going to the beach with me. He looked at me with well-deserved disdain.
At that time Mike was leasing an Infinity FX 45. I called it the “Paycheck Incinerator.” A nice looking car, but not, shall we say, fuel efficient or cost-effective. Thirteen miles to the gallon in the city, and 17 miles to the gallon on the highway. He loved it. Built-in Navigation, sun roof, leather seats. A real head-turner on the highway. We usually took it out around town on weekends when we visited friends. But any time we needed to haul something, including the dog, we ended up in the trusty Ford.
Mike’s lease was due to expire this July 1 — a day I had anxiously anticipated for three years. I had in my mind decided I would do whatever necessary to talk him into a reasonably priced mid-sized car that he would purchase, not lease.
Mike usually starts shopping for cars about a year or two before he needs to get a new one. Late at night I peer into his office and see side-by-side browser screens on his computer while he’s comparing one model to the next online. When I try and talk about other subjects, he asks me if I like the lines on the BMWs better than the lines on the Audi. I tell him I don’t really care. This, in his eyes, means I may not have a completely developed soul.
Due to the current economy, and everyone’s lack of confidence, including Mike’s, he started looking at cars that cost less than $700 a month to lease. This started to make me optimistic. But I pleaded with him to purchase, not lease, and “Drive it ’til it dies.” This does not appeal to him. Driving a car ’till it’s death is not sexy. Looking at new cars is sexy.
Mike considered leasing a Subaru station wagon. When we go skiing there’s always a plethora of young, hip, athletic people tooling up snowy mountain roads in these vehicles. This by itself makes them wholly appealing to anyone who connects image to their vehicle. Mike started telling everyone we knew he was going to drive a Subaru, and suddenly the feedback was not so good. “Soccer Mom car,” they all said (not that he dislikes soccer moms, but it’s not what you want to be called). “Ugly to look at too,” one friend said. He weathered the criticism, buckled down, and went to a dealership in Santa Monica and negotiated what was a reasonable lease into something more expensive. What was going to be $219 a month lease now turned into $469 a month. That’s what happens when you go from a basic four-cylinder vehicle to a fully loaded six-cylinder vehicle. This got me to thinking….
I said “Hey, remember when we looked at the Nissan Altimas last year? They were a pretty good drive and we both liked them better than the more pedestrian Camrys and Accords. Maybe we should drive one before you sign your Subaru lease.” He agreed, so we drove to our local Nissan dealer and test drove a stripped down four cylinder Altima. “A nice car he said, but there’s no extra options, what’s the point? I need a six cylinder with a sun roof, navigation, satellite radio, leather seats, dual climate control, and one touch windows.” These options turn a reasonably priced car into a reasonably expensive car. So, we hit a wall, went home for lunch, and he called another Nissan dealer who had a vehicle he thought he might like and we headed out to test drive it.
The minute we stepped one foot onto the Nissan lot, a salesman pointed at an Altima and said “I’m getting rid of this for only $21,000 today, have a look.” Mike looked in the interior and said he really liked the color, as well as the exterior too. I looked at the dealer’s sticker and it said it was a hybrid.
Wow, a hybrid! How cool would that be to talk Mike into a hybrid? But I know Mike, and I knew trying to convince him of anything would backfire. So zip my lip I did while that little four cylinder engine zipped us around surface streets and the freeway. “What pep this little engine has!” he said. The salesman reassured him that it had more horsepower than the standard four-cylinder.
So as you may have guessed, on that day, a person who once considered “sensible” to be a dirty word, bought a hybrid, which is truly sensible. No questions asked. Wow, what good engineering will do to make the planet a little greener, and cleaner! And, to Mike’s surprise, he’s finding out from friends and family there’s also status in driving a hybrid. Who knew?
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