I've now owned exactly two new cars in my life.  My first car was a used Toyota Celica, but the first actual new car I ever bought was a 1979 Toyota Corolla SR5.  I bought it at the age of 18 when I was a senior in high school.  It was yellow with black louvers on the rear window (remember those?), a 5-speed manual transmission, a black interior and no AC.  No power anything.  AM-FM radio with no cassette (CDs weren't around in '79).  I drove the dawg out of that little Corolla...for the next 18 years.  I kid you not - I was 18 when I bought it and I was 36 when I sold it!  

    The next two cars were purchased used.  One was a Ford Tempo and the most recent was a '99 Saturn.  Both were good cars and I got a lot of use out of them.  Yeah, there were repairs that had to be made along the way, but you expect that with used cars.  The Saturn started losing oil in recent months.  Well, I finally found the oil - in my coolant reservoir!  It wasn't just oily-looking coolant - it looked like oil that you would drain out of the oil pan.  Great - a blown head gasket.  Only it wasn't a head gasket.  It was a cracked cylinder head.  And a cracked radiator.  And, oh yeah, all the hoses needed replacing, as well.  I would have been willing to put maybe $1500 into it, but this was going to be $2200+.  I told them to take it off the rack and I'd pick it up after work (it still ran great, but I knew it wouldn't keep running for long).  

    When I got to the Saturn dealer, they didn't have anything I was interested in - new or used.  They had a crappy selection due to all the "cash for clunkers" deals they had been making.  The Saturn wouldn't qualify as a clunker since it was still getting about 30 MPG.  This was after 5:00 PM and I was determined I'd find a car that day.  I had to, since I live in one county and work in the next.  So it was on to the next dealer.  I had been looking at new cars on line at work (during lunch, of course) since Saturn had called me with the bad news that morning.  I was considering looking at a Kia or a Hyundai.  Toyota was another possibility and was in fact the very next dealer I came to.  They had about 3 Yarises...Yari...to choose from.  One was white (shows dirt), one was black (shows dirt and is way too hot), and one was silver.  As you can see from the picture, I opted for the silver one.  That is the picture from the dealer's website for the listing of my car.  

    I'm not crazy about the looks of a Yaris.  Its just a subcompact sedan.  But it had the features I've grown accustomed to (keyless entry, electric windows, cruise control, AC), plus some I've never actually had, such as a CD player and an audio jack for mp3 players.  The car has a surprisingly smooth ride for such a small vehicle.  Its gas mileage is rated as 29 city, 35 highway.  I checked it the other day and got 34 MPG.  That is a combination of interstate driving and city driving - with the AC cranked up.  I think the Yaris and I will get along just fine.