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).

As for how much car I think we can afford, well, if we finance for a 48-month period and hope for payments of $350, I think we can swing a Mazda6 5-door. It’ll be devoid of any options except for the automatic transmission—no leather, no moon roof, no Bose stero, etc.—but the 5-door already comes with a hefty amount of options standard, including all available sport appearance packages, steering wheel radio controls, 17” rims and other goodies, so I don’t feel bad about it. In fact, the standard equipment list for the 5-door is really quite staggering.

Mazda has some incentives available on the 6 until September 6th (either $1500 cash back or 1.9% APR for 48 months), plus we can get the car for 1%-2% under invoice on the Mazda S-plan (available to Ford Z-plan members). Then, if we drop another $5,000 as a down payment, we’ll be good to go. It’s rather alarming what new cars actually cost these days, especially if you don’t have any kind of prior vehicle to sell (which is also why leasing leads you quickly down the red carpet to hell). But if you’re going to buy a car with the intention of keeping it for many years, as we plan to do, then you gotta make sure you get a car you can live with for a while.

Things are going to start looking up now. I’ve been in worse situations before, and I’ve come through successfully. We’ll see everything through.