Hey guys, what's up? Nice to be here. I'm Kevin. I'm 24 years old. I live in the Va Beach area where I've worked as a carpenter for the past 6 years while doing all the work on my vehicles. My Dad's a professional mechanic, now retired, and has a great garage along with the tools and knowledge to do just about anything.
For the past 3 years I have been driving an 87 Chevy Silverado 4x4 with 35" tires getting about 10 mpg out of the 350/700R4 w/ 3.42s, a K&N, and a Hypertech chip. The last payment on the truck was ready to be made and I thought wow...another $250 in my bank account every month, that's cool.
Then I started looking at the big picture and between the loan payment, gas, and insurance, I was spending easily $525 a month to drive this truck. Throw in parts every few months and I'm making a house payment, right? I have some pretty big plans for it and it needs some serious maintenance even though the engine and tranny are fresh. I looked at a couple $1500 beaters but the more I thought about it, the more I brought myself to the conclusion that I didn't need to feed parts and fluids to two vehicles at the same time.
That led me to start researching new vehicles. I knew Civics were comfortable for me since my finace has one. I knew Cavaliers were uncomfortable since my sister has one. I assumed Toyotas were much nicer than my price range. I went online and looked at the Cobalts, the Civics, the Mazda 6/3, the Ford Focus...and finally Toyota.
For the price of the Corolla, the mileage can't be beat. That was my main selling point. I built one online, sent it to my nearest dealer, and went in for a test drive. I wound up leaving with an 05 Corolla CE, 1.8L, 4-speed auto, a spoiler (on order) and all the standard goodies for $315 a month. Insurance is $130 a month. That leaves $80 for gas for the month...which should be about right given the mileage difference between my two vehicles. I still have the truck but that only costs me $50 a month for insurance.
So for a little more than I was paying to drive my truck, I've got a brand new reliable vehicle that's comfortable and gets incredible mileage, plus I'm not having to count on being able to make repairs on the fly to make sure the truck is rolling in time to go to work the next day. Air-conditioning is great. I love cruise control. My truck has all this, but they need to be fixed still.
Anyway, glad to be here. I found this site through Corolland where it was agreed this was the place to be for any real info. I hope to learn lots from you guys and make some new friends. Thanks for reading!
And my other project I'm working on with Dad...a 72 Chevelle.
Let us know all about yourself and your car. Break the ice in here.
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