{"id":188,"date":"2007-05-12T20:12:09","date_gmt":"2007-05-13T00:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/log.spendernet.com\/?p=5"},"modified":"2007-05-12T20:12:09","modified_gmt":"2007-05-13T00:12:09","slug":"i-bought-a-new-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.spendernet.com\/?p=188","title":{"rendered":"I Bought a New Car!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"My<\/a>
\nYes it’s true; I went and bought a new car! <\/span>I picked up a brand new 2007 Pontiac Solstice GXP and I have to say, this thing is sweet! <\/span>I took it off the lot with a grand total of 20 miles on it, most of which were from the test drive I had done a few days earlier. <\/span>Essentially I’m the only person to ever drive it! <\/span>It has a turbo charged 2.0L 4-cylinder engine putting out 260 hp in an under 3000 pound package so overall it’s pretty fast. <\/span>It also handles great! <\/span>It sits completely flat around corners at speeds I would never dare to take my Grand Am around at! <\/span>Sure it\u2019s not up there with your Porches and Ferraris or some of the higher end BMWs, but it also cost less than half as much. <\/span>Even though, it’s definitely a blast to drive!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I got the car almost fully loaded with options except for OnStar and an automatic transmission, neither of which did I want. <\/span>Other than those two it has just about everything including, 6-disc in dash MP3 CD player with auxiliary input jack for MP3 players, XM radio, 7 speaker sound system with sub woofer, A\/C, leather seats\/wheel\/shift knob, chrome exhaust tips, rear spoiler, 18\u201d chromed aluminum rims, sport tires and the ever important GXP logo floor mats. <\/span>The GXP model also includes a lot of performance upgrades over the standard model, but I\u2019m not going to list them here as you can find all the details on Pontiac\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the first 3 months I get the XM free before I have to start paying for it so I’ve been listening to that a lot and so far it seems pretty good, but I’m no sold yet. <\/span>Still have 3 months to decide so no rush. <\/span>I’m lovin’ the MP3 CD player as it\u2019s cutting way down on the number of discs I have to keep with me in order to have some variety. <\/span>The MP3 player jack is also great as it eliminates the need for CD’s altogether however I still need to find a good place with easy access to keep the player while driving. <\/span>There\u2019s no space for it under the stereo because the shifter is there and the cup holders are the pop out type so the player just falls right through them. <\/span>The passenger seat works fine when I don\u2019t\u2019 have a passenger, but with one\u2026 well not so much. <\/span>I’m not really too concerned about it right now though as I’ve been using the XM and MP3 CD player mostly as it’s way more convenient to use on the drives to work and back. <\/span>I\u2019d probably only use my MP3 player for extended trips.<\/p>\n

So is this car practical? <\/span>No not really. <\/span>Do I care? <\/span>No not really. <\/span>Actually, for the task of driving to work and back I can’t really say it’s impractical. <\/span>I mean it gets me and my one bag there and back and with 22 city and 31 highway mpg so in that sense it’s a lot more practical than me driving say a Suburban where my mileage would be half that. <\/span>Heck, my Grand Am doesn\u2019t even get that good of mileage and that\u2019s what I would be driving if I didn\u2019t have this car. <\/span>Really the only way it wouldn\u2019t be practical is if I was taking an extended trip or needed go shopping for a lot of stuff or some larger item. <\/span>That’s why I kept my old car anyway. <\/span>That and the fact that I don’t plan to drive this thing in the winter at all.<\/p>\n

<\/span> Now I was<\/strong> considering leasing a BMW 335i before I bought this car. <\/span>If I had done that, I would have gotten rid of my old car and would drive the BMW year round. <\/span>I decided not to pretty much when I saw a Solstice sitting in a parking lot one day. <\/span>I had always liked the car since I saw it premiere at the Detroit auto show and I just had to stop and admire it. <\/span>I remembered back when I saw it at Detroit and said to myself I have to get me one of those! <\/span>I’m glad I did. <\/span>The car really stands out in the crowd way more than the BMW would have, especially in this town. <\/span>The biggest problem with this car though; it has the unfortunate side effect of attracting a lot of unwanted attention from the cops and people wanting to race, but I guess I knew that would happen. <\/span>The chicks love it so I guess it all balances out!<\/p>\n

<\/span>Anyway, you can check more photo’s of it in my photo gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes it’s true; I went and bought a new car! I picked up a brand new 2007 Pontiac Solstice GXP and I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sit-reps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.spendernet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.spendernet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.spendernet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spendernet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spendernet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spendernet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.spendernet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spendernet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spendernet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}