For: Me … basicallY

What is the best purchase you have ever made?

Believe it or not, yesterday I told my mom that I was thankful that I found the car ad for my 2015 Toyota Corolla all those many years ago when I lived Las Vegas way back in 2017! To this day, it has been a reliable mode of transportation and is truly the best purchase I’ve made yet!

Prior to owning my Toyota, I owned a small Kia and a Chevy Cruz. The Kia was pre loved and the Chevy was brand new and had the most issues! It needed an alignment and months later, the air conditioner needed replacing due to a recall! The insurance was more than the car payment. It was nice to have, my friends and roommates loved that I had a car and I did too—it gave me freedom. It took me, my family and friends on adventures, but it also kept me from enjoying more of a time of my life that I should’ve better enjoyed. Because I had to work to keep said car.

When I gave up that car, I vowed to never own another American made car or a new car because the car buying experience at a dealership is horrible. I literally get mini-PTSD whenever I drive past the dealership where I bought my Cruze from!

My Toyota and I have been together for almost 10 years! It’s my longest relationship to date. We’ve traveled nearly all of the west coast and have been as east as El Paso, Texas together. We’ve also been detained in Canada together and I damaged the under belly of my car whilst maneuvering the steep streets in Mexico together.

On Monday, one of my colleagues (Oliver) was just telling me to never get rid of my Corolla and I told him unless it’s for a hybrid. Also on that day, I saw an ad on TV for a Toyota Tacoma…it caught my eye but I’ve been spoiled for so long—not having a car payment for so many years and only paying less than $100 a month for auto insurance. I love it here 🙂‍↕️✨

Owning a car now/post-Covid is EXPENSIVE! People are out here paying car payments that are the equivalent of some people’s rent and mortgage payments! I could but would not! My Corolla is economical, its upkeep is affordable, and it withstood the mileage my ex put on it. *That’s a story and a series in itself. 😩

Cars in the United States are changing in 2027 and not for the better. Google is free.

And as a result, I don’t foresee myself buying anything newer than a 2026 in the future. Again, Google, Reddit—they’re free. But as psychotic as our government is and if you believe the conspiracies about the junkyard fires, we may not have a choice 😫

Only time will tell.