Everyone has something they hate, and for some it's buying a car. Me, I enjoy it, because I get to have something new to learn, take apart and break. I'm a gearhead, though, so forgive me those idiosyncrasies and instead take from me the experience. I'm going to tell you about buying a used car. As someone who has bought and sold a few (at least two dozen in the past 15 years), I've probably figured out a few things that can help you buy one yourself. An introduction, then, to what went through my mind as I shopped. (Author's note: Writing to you in the first person isn't something I like. It's elitist and arrogant in a way that doesn't jive with real journalism. Arrogance can be fun, but not when it's the one-sided, manufactured omnipotence some writers adopt to preach to readers they know can't respond.

Buy a Used Car?
I needed a used car, something that I could haul my boy around in, something that I could park at the airport. This implies a cost ceiling?how about $5000? The things already in my garage, though fast and challenging and interesting, are not very utilitarian and definitely not airport material. With purpose and function in mind, I needed a throwaway of some size, but not so much as to sacrifice decent mileage. Four doors would make installing and removing a child easier. A wagon could be useful. I snowboard a lot, so all-wheel drive? I go rock crawling in the mountains with friends, so a nimble little vehicle with some clearance would be cool. It had to be a manual gearbox if I wanted anything small and inexpensive to be fun (inexpensive sounds so much better than cheap), and a five-speed gearbox has fewer parts to break. Japanese manufacturers do small and inexpensive well?the Civic, Corolla, Sentra, Impreza. They're all economical and reliable. Okay, thought-process complete, parameters in place.