Via a friend of Michelle’s, we found a cheap Daewoo Lanos.

Well, actually we found two; a 1999 SE with A/C, a slightly larger engine, mag wheels, etc.; and a 2000 entry-level model. I decided on the 2000; this is our second car, so A/C isn’t as much of an issue (we only really need it for about 3 weeks out of the year in this climate anyway). The A/C (and other stuff on the larger engine) will only lead to more maintenance issues (and higher bills!) down the road, and the smaller engine still has more than enough power for day-to-day use.

Further, the car was slightly out of my original price-range for a beater. On the other hand, it’s also 5 years newer than all of the beaters we looked at. Heck, it’s not really a beater; I even get the 2 years remaining on the power-train warranty! I decided that since I was already spending more than I wanted to, I didn’t really need to drop an extral $1000 for the A/C…

We pick up the new car on Thursday. It is red…