I wish I could beam this emphatically into the heart and soul of any <30 year old car shopping. Keep them from making the mistakes I did.

Yeah but you would have needed to do alot of work prior to today on the topic of
-Not being a freeloading shit-head

Before your parents would fall for that.


If you have done the work, congratulations. If not, too bad.

And yet you made a mousepad of it.... I sense some repressed fondness.

Not having a car payment is a great idea.... one I wish I had heeded when I was younger.

Sure I loved the new Mazda3, but my GrandAm needed less than 3/4 months of payments to fix and would have gotten atleast a few more years of use out of it with regular little fixes.... VERY likely still would have been ahead in the…

Take someone who has your interest in getting a good deal with you. I’d suggest that person be someone who has made some mistakes in past deals and learned from them and made enough deals to be relaxed and comfortable during the process. Don’t take some high-strung newbie with you, no matter how “old” they are. Your…

Still looks like shit compared to the bags “certain” people were getting initially, or the bag that was advertised/promised.

Gotta specify friend.

Some would define Ferrari Syndrome “Selling 3x cars worth of Merchandise for every car sold”.

Peasant: Mighty Pharoah, Everytime I take my car to the dealer he hurts me....

Pharoah McParland: Then what do you think you should stop doing?

FIAC Syndrome (Ferrari Syndrome as its commonly known) can be controlled with prescription engineering if diagnosed and treated early.


FIAC = Frequent Italian Automotive Combustion

Good, they only went partially Italian.

Everyone knows you never go FULL Italian.

What a strange thought.

I mean, yeah......

This is a similar reason for why my partner purchased a Golf. I had a Jetta a few times as a rental and it honestly changed my opinion on VW. So when we needed a new car to replace the old one, I suggested looking at VW.

Like the Golf more than the Jetta though.

I call it the “Taylor Swift” effect.

Your 1st to 2nd Gen reflects my feelings as well. The Second Gen seemed like a significant improvement in design, fit/finish, build quality, etc. Very Jetta-like.

As for the tires, could be the Rental company’s doing. I try not to hold stuff like that against the car.... though it changes your perception, without a…

I too was relatively unimpressed with the last Corolla rental I had (last gen). I have not driven one of the new gen ones.

My mother drives a Nissan Versa... and I feel dirty even saying that.

I think you give a lot of Car Rental people credit for suggesting they wash the cars.... especially based on some of the cars I’ve seen in the return lanes.

But they’re SO FUCKING STUPID!!!!

Your first sentence was right on.... the rest, less so.

Not sure if that’s a road you want to go down with that logo next to your name....