Transportation

Once again my good ole Taurus is acting up. It made it the winter without any problems, but now they're starting again. By "acting up" I mean things like staying in first gear when I accelerate and then finally catching and shifting, the occasional sudden lurch that drops slows me down 10 mph, and then the cruise control decides to randomly not work (usually when the above is happening). This doesn't happen all the time, just once in a while, and it's usually when I'm doing a lot of city driving or are on the highway for a long time and then pull off. Plus I think there was some faint smoke coming out of it at 2AM the other night and didn't really care because I was trying to get home and stay alert.

So, we'll see how long she lasts. In the meantime, I (and my mom) are passively on the hunt for something else...just in case. I ideally would like to/plan to drive it til it dies.

In thinking about what I'd want, a Jeep would be nice, but not at all practical. One thing I appreciate about England (and the rest of Europe) is the size of their vehicles. My Taurus would look like a beast over there! Everything's small and I like it. I saw a handful of trucks and no SUV's. Seeing this stark difference gets me somewhat frustrated with how 'bigger is better' and unenvironmentally minded America is becomming. Simplify! (Ah, Thoreau)...

In America's defence though, the country is quite a bit bigger. We consider a four hour trip somewhere (hauling multiple people with extra stuff) to be nothing, while across the pond it's a vacation to another country. There everything is much closer together.

Food for thought at least...it's making me think/evaluate. In any case, bring on the hybrids! (expecially with these freaking gas prices) I think I'll look for one of those...I wonder how cheap/expensive they are.

(Kudos to London for efficient public transportation as well.)