Western Arab

2009 White Honda Accord LX

It looks like I am going with a Honda Accord lease option. After much consideration of buying new, buying used, or leasing, I decided I will be going with another lease. It is the cheapest upfront, in this crappy economy while I am looking for more work as the current project is not enough to cover the bills. I also may consider buying it after the lease is up, but I do like the idea of a new car so I don’t know if I will do that and I hear Honda is releasing a bio-diesel accord in 2010 that is supposed to do almost 63 mpg on highway. And who knows what else they may have in the next 3 years. I was considering keeping the Passat when I first leased it, but the last year, I had decided for sure I wasn’t.

I considered the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima, Hyundai Sonata, Ford Fusion and many others. I always ended back with the Japanese cars. They hold their value much better than the rest. The Accord and Camry are very popular and reliable. And other than feeling that the Camry is a geezer car, the Accord is also cheaper on the lease. So I am looking at paying first month payment down only so least upfront, maybe even sign and drive. It will be an Accord LX basic as much I can be basic on that, I know I will want various options but I am looking for best price right now, which means lowest if you didn’t know. And the color should be white as this is Florida and the heat is killer.

In another money spending news, I had to replace the AC unit at the other property after I had spend that $290 replacing the capacitor. Yeah I know, total rip off to start but I was hoping it would get me by through the summer without a problem. It didn’t last 1 month. Not even going to say how much the new AC unit cost, I don’t want to think about it. The old AC unit was 14 years old anyway so it did need replacing. Now if I can find a rental for this property, at least that can pay back the cost of the AC unit and help pay for the property’s mortgage. And yes I did use an Arab to buy and install the AC from, but surprisingly he was good. He was on time, was informative on what he was selling and simply knew his stuff. So THUMBS UP for an Arab providing service.

2006 VW Passat

Well it is official. The VW passat is going back tomorrow to the dealer. I am returning the lease. The car was nice to have for three years. It is a nice looking car, but really had some annoyances. The car battery had to be changed during the three years as the car stopped starting on me at some point. VW made some “soft touch” material on the pull handles, radio buttons and door lock buttons. This was nice and all, except they had air bubbles on some of the buttons and all of it started peeling away at some point. I had the radio and door pull handles replaced because of the peeling. Car also had some vibration issues at some point, had manifest manifold valve replaced or something like that to correct it.

I had the inspection done on it yesterday for the return and the front left tire was too worn as I expected. They will be charging me $120 for that, which is ok since I didn’t get any charges for scratches on the car. It had a few of them around. So I will need to pay $120 for the tire and there is a turn in fee of $350. Yeah more money goes, so easily. Which now leaves me with getting another car. I have been looking at various cars, but have not found something that works yet. That is, something that is a great deal, I am not rushing, there is time to get another car. It isn’t just which car maker and which model. I am trying to decide between buying used, certified, new or just leasing another car. Too many choices plus a bad economy make the choice harder. Take away the bad economy, give me a good paying job, and the choice would be MUCH EASIER. Guess the BMW will have to wait… for now.