The lease on my car is almost up, so madre and I hit the town today to do some car shopping.  

I posted a picture of her new ride yesterday, but here is the inside: 

Yep, this gas-guzzling Jetsons car starts with a button!  No key to put in an ignition, it just senses the presence of the key and turns on with one touch.  Crazy!

Given the fact that gas prices are breaking the bank for me and that I live in the hippie capital of the South, I decided to check out some hybrids.  I really like the Honda I have now, so we asked first for some information about the Honda Insight.  Madre was smart enough to ask about what she calls the "get up and go" - aka, how quickly the car accelerates.  All sorts of numbers were thrown around about cylinders and horsepower and other auto jargon I wasn't able to translate.  Then Steve, our salesman (an Aggie, whoop!) put it in terms I could relate to: "It goes from zero to sixty in 10 seconds."  

What?  Ten seconds?  That's an eternity.

Despite my disappointment, we gave it a spin anyway.  (Madre wouldn't let me bring Foreigner with me.  I think Steve was upset when he heard this.) 

Madre managed to hit her head getting into the backseat, but said it was an alright ride otherwise.  It definitely accelerated more slowly than I am used to, but ten seconds didn't seem like quite the eternity I expected.  In Steve's words, "it wasn't quite the suck fest you thought it would be?"  Exactly!

I also wanted to try the Civic Hybrid.  Note: I started checkout out hybrids about 18 months ago when gas prices sky-rocketed, and I found myself unimpressed with the value of them.  Most I researched took over ten years to make up in saved gas money what it cost to buy the hybrid edition of the vehicle.  This seemed like a pretty decent deal though.  40 mpg city and 45 highway.  That's twice what I get right now, and the 35 mile daily commute to/from work smiles at those numbers.  I got in for spin #2 of the day.  

I loved it!  I'll be green AND have some more spending money.  Woo hoo!