Is There Life After Test Drives?

The challenge of finding the Toyota lot was met and won.  After getting directions at my hair dressers, (two women actually FOUGHT to tell me how to get to Modern Toyota!) I arrived and prepared to drive two cars!  The Toyota Matrix and the Scion xD.  

At this point I am secretely holding the Mini Cooper as the 'standard which must be met' in my heart of hearts.  A nice guy named Dan took me on test drives.  Both Toyota products were excellent.  Now, it is hard to beat a Toyota, and I'd say that the Mini and the Toyota as far as comfort and driving are running neck and neck, though they are different.  

The Scion xD is the least expensive of the two, and had more of a "spots car" ride.  But not unpleasant at all.  Loved the configuration of the interior and it had plenty of room.  The Matrix is a twin car to the Pontiac Vibe.  So I knew pretty much what to expect.  Somehow, with Toyota's usual attention to detail and customer comfort, the Matrix comes out a bit quieter on the road than the Vibe.  A very good ride, a bit more "sedan" than the xD, but still with good road feel.  

Now I am getting really stressed.

As fate would have it, I passed the Mini lot on the way back to town and went in for another drive.    On my first swing in, I had driven a Clubman (the Mini answer to a station wagon) and this time I wanted to drive the Mini.   My regular salesman, Brian was off, but "the General" took me for a drive.  And we played with the little car.  

I have begun to wonder if the seats of the Mini's might be impregnated with some sort of euphoric drug.  Otherwise, I cannot imagine why a sane woman who does not  define herself by what she drives, and who considers a car a way to get from point A to point B without walking, sits in this car and becomes  Helio Castranevs!  And that would be Helio on speed and dossed up on happy juice.  I needed to get control.  So we crunched numbers.  These are the most expensive of my choices.  Though in the horrid cost of cars today, they are only about 20% more than the lowest deal I could get on my least expensive possibility.  And it does not make me nearly as happy.  Now we deal with "what cost happiness?".  I will say that doing a roundabout at almost 70 mph was as good as an E ticket ride as Disneyland.  The bad news.  I cannot get an 8' ladder in the Mini unless I leave the hatch up.  Can it haul what I might need to haul?

More to come.