Friday, November 22, 2013

Whadda You Do For An Encore?


You make payments. 

The Missus decided on a Buick Encore to replace the mini-van. It's a small car - not much bigger than the VW bug, actually. It's got a turbocharged 4 cylinder that's supposed to get good mileage while still getting decent performance. I drove it home from the dealer last night and it seemed to have more than enough pep to pull it around. I didn't try hitting it hard or passing anyone at 60 mph but it didn't feel gutless like so many of the small cars have been in the past. It's got lots of cool features if you're into electronic stuff - trial versions of OnStar and XM radio. I don't know about the OnStar but I like the satellite radio. I can get blues and jazz any time I want - not just late in the evening and Sunday afternoons like on NPR.  I've pretty well given up on the commercial radio stations. Except for one fairly local station, everything else is all to some type of standardized format: classic rock, country or some ungodly talk radio crap, all with repetitious commercials - like Me-TV only without Peter Francis Geraci.

Getting back to the Encore however, it seems to be a well built small car and a good value for the money - might even restore my faith in General Motors. The last time I considered buying a Buick was a GS model in 1971. I ended up with a Cutlass instead and Buick went back to being somewhat of a luxury car or something an old retired guy would drive. Well, that's what we've got here now. Old retired guy in a Buick, just not the stereotypical Buick of the past. It's still no Jaguar, though.

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