o happy day. lets start at the top. this morning, i got up EXTRA early to go to this special used car show thing up in santa rosa to see if we can find a car we wanna buy. they advertized over 300 cars.. there maybe 100 at most. my dad really wanted to see and maybe drive a neissan altima. we got to the show at around 8:30.. it started at 8:00. by the time we got there both altimas that they had were gone. one was already sold, the other was being test driven. we walked around for a while, seeing nothing astonishing. my dad looked through a few cars.. such as a couple of mazda 626s and a pontiac bonneville. i showed my mom a dakota, another vehicle we were strongly considering, only this one was a, extended cab model, we needed the four door quad cab. but at least this way she could get a look at the interior and the sive of the truck and such. we also considered a PT cruiser for a while. its definetly useful and i think its cool looking. but, as i said, nothing astonishing.

on our way home we stopped at this place where they sell all kinds of outdoor yard type stuff. and i dont mean plastic flamingoes. this guys has about 20 hand made water fountains , all made artisticly out of cememnt (for the bowl) and scrap mettal. alot of the stuff this guy had was really cool looking. he also sold fish, plants and ponds. my mom saw all kinds of stuff she liked.. but nothing that she really had to have (she really wants a fountain for the backyard). anyways, we then went back up to Santa Rosa (where the cars were) to a Big KMart where my dad said they had some fountains. again, several fountains.. but nothing wonderful. see a trend here?

anyways, after returning home my mom and sis went to have their hair "done" and my dad and i went over to the local dealerships car hunting. my lazyass bro stayed home. anyways, the first stop, of course, was the Nissan dealership. my dad mentioned (to the salesperson) that we were looking at altimas and frontiers (the four door crew cab version). the salesperson went on to convince my dad that the altima was better for us. better power and mileage plus it handles and rides smoother. and it has a bigger interior. whatever. we test drove an altima 2.5 se (the four cylinder) it was ok. smooth? yes. handling? ok acceleration? blah. its a midsize with a 4!!! it was nothing impressive. my dad liked it.. but he was somewhat biased. we then moved on to the honda dealership to look at the civic hybrid (btw.. the car we're looking for would be for the family to use.. mainly my mom and i.. my dad does WAY TOO MUCH driving for him to get a new car) however, the civic hybrid WOULD be the car for him. with its hybrid gas/electric powerplant it get 45-50 mpg!!!! on regular gas!!!! impressive. so we test drove 1. he said it didnt accelerate as well as the nissan. i didnt notice much of a difference. and you cant argue with 50 mpg... thats from here to LA on 9 gallons of gas!!!!!! thats a performance number you cant argue with and few can match. but my dad wasnt impressed with its performance and it was a bit small. and it was as much as the altima... and the altima was a bigger nicer car. it was a toss up. so we went home to share our experiences. after about an hour of talking, we decided to head back out and check out other cars. this time we went to the dodge dealership. we told the guy we wanted a dakota.. specificly a quad cab. he then said he didnt have any used ones.. and only a few new ones. he had 2. a 4x4 and a 4x2. both white. not a huge selection. he recomended us to his friend at the santa rosa dealership. they had a slightly larger slection. 3-4 used dakota quads alone. plus about 8 new ones. and thats not counting the extended cabs and regular cabs... they had a lot. (no pun intended)

anyways, they had 2 we were looking at, a 2002 and a 2001. the 2002 had less miles on it.. but more per year (more than half the 2001 if that makes sense to you) plus it was silver, an SLT, a crappy bed liner, and it was a 4x4. we really didnt need the 4x4 but whatever. the 2001 was black, a sport, 4x2 with a camper shell. i didnt like how the camper shell looked (it made it look like a retarded durango.. but whatever) my mom liked the silver one.. cuz it was silver (as opposed to black.. she didnt want a black vehicle) but the 2002 was $4,000 more than the 2001. so we debated that long and hard. then we found out the 4x2 gets better mileage and that the 4x4 would cost more to insure. this was the end of the debate. it was the black one. so we test drove it. well.. my dad did. it was smooth, for a truck, and it handled reasonobly well. the best part was that the saleperson didnt ride along with us.. so, since there was no dealer babysitter looking over his shoulder, my dad was able to put it through a proper shake down. it held up. it accelerated very well... and with its hier ride hight and looser suspension than the nissan or honda, you really felt it surge forward... that and that it has just about twice the engine as the nissan. plus the back windows roll all the way down (a big issue for me, since i rode in my uncles new ('99) chevy tahoe and found out the wiondow only rolls down about 4 inches... crap, thats just crap. anyways, we returned all smiles and basiclyt went through all the formalities. to make a long story short (ok, ok.... to make a long story not quite as long) we drove it home.. ell my dad did... i followed in the ford POS. though i did test drive it after we got home. the accelerator peddal is very gas-happy... if you just tap it, it surges, and is you let off it kinda bogs down.. i guess i just gitta get used to it. other than that... it was a blast to drive. i felt big, powerful, and all around cool. (if you have an 88 ford taurus that you drive daily... then you understand my bliss).