After a lot of wrangling with the dealer over prices, and then more wrangling with ourselves over the finances, we’ve gotten ourselves back on track and are scheduled to take delivery of our new Mazda6 s 5-door on Saturday. We’re going to end up financing through the dealer, not a third-party bank like Capital One…the latter gave me a shitty rate that I wasn’t expecting (I still don’t know where that came from), so Mazda Credit ended up being the best choice after all.

I’ve already called Eclipse Auto and scheduled a time to get the windows tinted. This is the same shop that did tint work on the county sheriff’s squad cars and the only Lamborghini Murcielago in town (check it out in the gallery on their site), so I figure they have to know their way around. I’m thinking charcoal 30% all around. I guess even auto tint materials have improved since I got my Trans Am tinted, because now they offer a lifetime warranty against peeling, bubbling, discoloring or any of that other crap that happens to lousy tint. Nice.

Test-drove the 6 again on Thursday after hearing the service department fixed a couple of little problems I’d documented last weekend. The rattle from the B-pillar still wasn’t corrected, though, so I got the service manager and pointed out the exact location of the noise. Hopefully they’ll have it fixed up by Saturday.

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My wife and I went back to the Mazda dealer on Saturday to take a car out for a 24-hour test drive. On our way we were saying we liked the bright red color, but upon arriving my wife decided she really liked the Steel Gray Metallic—the very color I’d first had my heart set on. So Steel Gray it was, and after hemming and hawing for a bit, we took the dealer’s only Steel Gray 5-door Mazda6 home for the day.

Mazda6 s 5-door in Steel Gray Metallic

Just like all the other Mazda6 V6 models in stock, the car was fully-loaded. Luxury package, power moonroof, Bose audio package with 6-disc in-dash CD changer, side impact air bags, automatic transmission. There wasn’t much choice in the matter, so we took it. I can tell you that I did try the cloth interior on one of the stripped-down cars they had in stock, and after a minute of trying to get comfortable in it, I decided that it had to be the absolute worst cloth upholstery I’d ever felt in my life. It was like velcro—or a cheese grater—rubbing on your back. And I had a thick cotton shirt on!

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First of all: I admit it, there are no pics! The weather was shit yesterday evening when I got to the dealer; all dark and cloudy like it was going to rain any minute. Decided to forget the camera and just enjoy the drive. After all, I knew I’d be coming back for another drive with my wife along for the trip; will be plenty of time for photos then.

So I went on down to the local Mazda dealer yesterday after work. It’s the only Mazda dealer in town, so after all the shit I’ve gotten shoved up my ass from GM in the last few years (with the notable exception of the last warranty repair I had done on my Trans Am), here I am crossing my fingers that this dealer isn’t going to hose me down too. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by the sales staff, at least the ones I met. They were really friendly and helpful. I do have some reservations about the guy who is apparently assigned to me as “my” salesman, but more on that later.

There was basically nobody at the dealer when I got there, and there were a lot of Mazda6’s out there on the lot, so I asked to take one for a spin. One of the sales staff came along. At first, we got in a Steel Gray Metallic 5-door that was fully loaded, but the fuel tank was reading below “E”, so we decided to try another one. Finally I got behind the wheel of an absolutely beautiful Volcanic Red (think “Arrest Me” Red) 5-door V6 and fired ‘er up.

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Went down to the body shop this morning and picked up the last of our personal effects and the license plate from the wrecked Vibe. Pulled the community access sticker and gate barcode from the windows, took the cargo nets and blankets out of the back, and retrieved the Buddha pendant and Chinese talisman from the rearview mirror. The talisman is supposed to provide safety to the owner, and in that sense I think you could say that it worked—all parties escaped without injury.

The insurance company doesn’t seem poised to raise our rates, at least not according to the policy experts at the national customer center which I spoke to. Their records show no fault found in the accident, plus no citations/points were issued. Someone told me that in Florida, insurance companies aren’t supposed to raise your rates unless you were cited by police and earned points on your license, but I don’t know if I believe that. It sure sounds good, though. But the quote for insurance on a new Mazda6 s is only $83 more annually than the Vibe—and the Mazda has a V6 engine! Can’t believe it. I think it’s due to the fact that the Mazda also has ABS and anti-theft systems which the Vibe lacked, and that contributes to lowering the cost of insuring the Mazda.

I’m going to the Mazda dealer after work today to test-drive a Mazda6 5-door with the V6 and 5-speed auto. Taking the new camera with me and will shoot lots of photos and take some video (primarily to capture the sound of the exhaust note, which people say is the nicest of any car in this class). The total loss department has been informed of our GMAC account number and told they can pick up the car, so now we wait for both Liberty Mutual and GMAC to get back to me with details on their decision about the value of the car and what happens to finish up the process. I think it’s probably going to take a few days, but the ball’s in their court now, so I can sit back and tend to other matters at last.

Oh yeah…Mazda6 photos should be online later tonight.

Just in case there was any doubt (which there actually was), I got a hold of the insurance company this afternoon and confirmed that the Vibe is totaled. I was told that the case had just come in and was waiting to be assigned to a “loss counselor”…LOL…okay, that’s not the term they used, but it’s some sort of title that refers to a person whose job it is to take over auto claims after they’ve been declared a total loss. Once it gets assigned to that person, they’ll be calling me to walk me through the rest of the process.

So now it seems the next order of business will be to get everything paid off, then go look at new cars. I’ve been doing some financial calculations on that. I figure we can safely spend up to $350 a month on a new car payment, which absolutely negates the possibility of buying a car with a finance period of less than four years. It’s just not possible. Even financing $15,000 results in greater than a $400/month payment on a 36-month loan. I just can’t deal with that. It’s too dangerous. I think we’ll be looking at a 48-month period, but that’s really not such a bad thing. Since we’re buying the car one year earlier than we otherwise would have, that puts us in full ownership by summer of 2008, which is just about what I planned for the Mustang (MY 2008 is rumored to be the first year the next real Special Edition Mustang will debut).

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As the stone gray stormclouds roll in off the Gulf of Mexico, and the ominous growl of thunder begins to build in the distance, I find it a somewhat dismally fitting occasion to announce that my wife’s 2003 Pontiac Vibe shall never again roam these streets. The accident it suffered on Friday night, while cosmetically not as catastrophic as all that, has crippled the vehicle at its most structurally vulnerable point, ruining the frame rails and tearing up the underbody. The insurance company’s “preferred body shop” reached an estimate that was approximately 78% of the total vehicle value before deciding to abandon efforts and speak to the claims adjuster about a writeoff.

To be honest, this is the outcome I wanted. When I first pulled up that night and saw the damage, I felt like my head would explode. I’ve never seen one of my own cars that badly damaged before, and it looked terrible. But even then I never imagined it being totalled. Over the course of the next few days I began with the hope that the car would be fixed, but as the details and repair charges mounted, I came to the sad realization that despite the body shop’s undoubtedly professional efforts to return it to like-new condition, the car would never drive, feel, or hold together the same as it once did.

Our original plan was to buy the Vibe when the lease expires in July 2005. However, I soon realized that that would never happen—not only would the car start creaking, groaning and falling apart sooner than it should, but it would also be near-impossible to sell on the private market for any kind of money. All someone would have to do is run a CarFax report, and I’d never hear from them again.

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