No, we're not planning on buying a new car any time soon.  I was just thinking how we've always bought used cars - until this last time when Jeffrey bought his brand new Honda.  Our very first ever brand new car.  The weird thing is that it seems like having a brand new car costs more than having just any old used car - or at least the cars we've had.  It's probably because he takes it to the Honda dealership for all the oil changes, and tries to stay on a regular tune up schedule - again at the Honda dealership.  Even with the occasional coupons they send him, it still seems to cost more than I think it should.  The dealerships always seem to charge more than your corner Houston auto repair shop or quickie oil change place, don't they?  I wonder why.  Does the dealership really know more than the average guy?

I guess the up side is that the dealership has a record of everything that has been done on that car.  Should anything ever go seriously wrong, they will definitely not be able to claim that he didn't take care of the car like he was supposed to.  That's what they tried to tell us when our Windstar died, and even though I'm really good at keeping everything, I couldn't find all the oil change records.  I don't know that it would have made a difference, but still.

I do feel a little better today.  A while back I came across what looked like a bill from the Honda dealership - for $1900.  What?  Upon closer examination, I realized it was an estimate for tires.  Still - $1900 for tires?  Seriously?  Then today I found it again - it's an estimate for tires, with the prices of 3 different tires listed.  They just, for some reason, added them all up, so $1900 would be the cost for 12 tires, which we obviously don't need.  Maybe I can rethink wishing we bought a used Acura Integra or something instead of this brand new Honda.