Menage à Trois Bingo

I spent today looking at cars, talked for a long time to a saleswoman at Saturn, who was most helpful on telling me what I needed to do to get my ducks in a row (and even giving opinions, some of them quite positive, on other makes of car). She looked my old car up in the NADA book and predicts I'll get $4900 after my deductible. Now it's up to me to figure what I can afford on top of that. I really don't want to buy a $4500 used car (sales tax, you see...) because I don't think it would last me very long. But I have a lot of thinking to do.

I rented a car for a week, but I'm thinking I may keep it at least a second week so I'm not so rushed in my decision making. The extra hundred-fifty or so will be well worth it to prevent a bad choice.