I bought this car in a moment of clarity.

I was down to one car again.

Despite my best efforts, my cars... keep... meeting (what I consider to be) untimely ends. What I find out is that most Americans rarely keep a car more than three years, so maybe I'm on par. My preference for the used treasure may skew things somewhat.

Nevertheless, after the death of the Hyundai, I was left looking for a car. If you've read everything up until now, you know my preference for 2 door, 4 seater manual transmission coupes. I decided to keep going with what I like. I was thinking about a Pontiac Solstice, but we already have a Miata, and another 2-seater doesn't work for me. I wanted at least the semblance of practicality.

So I started searching Autotrader and CarMax. Now that my brother was working for GM, I wanted something that would promote the GM family in the family. Sure, I let him buy a Dell, but my company hadn't served the home user in quite some time. Heck, I told my parents to buy Macs, because I didn't want the Hell of being Windows support line #1.

Anyway, I was thinking a G5 or G6, but none were available locally yet. Grand Prixs and Grand Ams are simply too ugly to drive, but I looked anyway. Checked out the Saab and Subaru cars, too, but nothing really popped. Then the CarMax website made a suggestion: They had a 2004 Pontiac GTO in stock. Wait.. what?

I mean, sure, it's a 2+2 manual transmission coupe. However, it's got the Corvette LS-1 drive train, and the 6-speed. Imagine both the Probes' engines all glued together and you still come up about a half a liter short on engine size. I could have a V-8! What a profoundly stupid idea! I had to at least drive it, though; so I picked out a few other coupes that were on the lot, grabbed Sean and headed over to CarMax.

I shouldn't have driven the GTO first

I mean, the other cars were capable enough, and the hatchbacks could have carried a lot more cargo, but I immediately fell in love with the GTO. I'd never had such an impractical, pleasure-focused car before. I could immediately tell that it was not only an extremely raunchy monster, but that it could also be totally comfy on long highway trips. Heck, once you got in, the back seat was even roomy! The other cars never had a chance.

I went home, checked the reviews, and found out a few interesting tidbits: It got more or less the same mileage as a Solstice. It never sold very well, which explained the low price on a car with only eleven thousand miles on it. The reviews from folks I cared about were overwhelmingly positive, though all complained about the paltry trunk. I figured I could live with that. I went back and bought the car.

It's been awesome.

I mean, sure, there's paltry cargo space, and the gas mileage is - at best - 28mpg, but with the new job I rarely drive it, and it's awesome on a trip. Love. It.