• Cars, front seats, and airbags.

    You might have heard that we were having trouble with Cheryl’s lemon Saturn.
    When Cheryl’s car goes caput, I go to my parent’s house for a loaner. This last time the loaner was none other than THE MR-2. A little two door, mid-engine, sports car made by Toyota. My dad has a fun little manual five speed.

    The next morning I realized an opportunity for some daughter-father bonding, so I suggested to Cheryl that I could take the kid to school. Since I’m the one that usually drives the loaner, this meant I’d be taking Beth to school in THE MR-2.

    Beth and I walked out the door. Beth went first and walked up beside THE CIVIC. I took the route less traveled, and went to unlock THE MR-2. Beth exclaimed, “are we going in grandpa’s car daddy?!?”

    “Yep,” I feigned casual.

    Beth ran up to the passenger side of THE MR-2 and cautioned, “daddy, grandpa’s car doesn’t have a back seat and I’m not supposed to ride in the front.”

    What’s a father supposed to say to that? I try to explain things to Beth when she asks, even if it won’t be entirely understood. I said, “well Beth, most cars have an airbag that pops out when you get into an accident, but it’s only in the front seat. Airbags can be dangerous for little kids because kids are really little, and airbags are really big and really fast. But, grandpa’s car doesn’t have airbags, so it’s not like our cars, and in some ways it’s a little safer for kids in the front seat.”

    Beth wasn’t just o.k. with this explanation, she reveled in it. During the five minute drive to school, my normally talkative child uttered just one sentence:

    “Daddy, this is REALLY cool!”

    She sat in that seat like a queen on her throne, looking all around, unaccustomed to the unobstructed view.

    Now fast forward to yesterday. We finally decided to send Cheryl’s lemon Saturn down the river. It was well past time we took a do-over, so we bought a car. (Yes, we bought; but that’s another story.) Cheryl and I left work early, but the deal still wasn’t done when it came time to pick up Beth. Since we were close, I left to get Beth and brought her back to the dealership. I brought her up to speed on the way back, and she was eager to get a close look at mommy’s new car. We went inside and walked up to the equivalent model in the showroom. Beth walked around to the passenger side, opened the front door and climbed in. She turned to me and asked in an innocent and hopeful tone: “daddy, does this car have airbags?”

    Is it better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all?

    Ask Beth.

  • Getting your money’s worth.

    How much is a good song worth to you? Do you believe music is property that should be bought and sold, or do you believe it belongs in the public domain? How do you keep people making music if music is free?

    I’ve heard several arguments both for and against Apple’s new music download service. For me, it’s a simple moral question. Music is someone’s craft. Like any other craft, some people do it for their own sake, with their own time, for their own benefit. Some share it with others, and some charge you a fee so they can do it full time. A select few do it well enough to make an awful lot of money. As a consumer, I have objected to record companies insistence to extort money from me – in the way of forcing me to buy an entire album of songs I don’t want, in order to own the one I do want. For that reason, I haven’t bought music in years. I haven’t stolen very much music either, so mostly I’ve made do with my college collection of CDs. Suddenly, a music service comes along to allow me to purchase the music I want, without needing to pay for music I don’t want. I pay for it because I don’t want to steal. I pay for it because someone has finally decided to sell me want I want. I haven’t spent much, but it’s more than I have in years, and there’s more where that came from. I really hope that there are more out there like me. Not just because I want the service to succeed (and therefore stick around to take more of my money), but because I think paying for music is the right thing to do and I hope most people are above petty theft.

    Please give me some reason to be optimistic about the human condition.

  • To buy or to lease?

    When last we communed, I was about to euthanize Cheryl’s car. Well, it turns out it didn’t quite come to that. Cheryl is once again driving around in her golden lemon on wheels. But we have been discussing the possibility of replacements. The problem is that we really like our money, what little we have of it. A new car will force a separation, one that we don’t take lightly. In this light, Cheryl has been swept up in the phenomenon known as the dealer lease program. The idea is that you make lower payments leasing a car for a few years, then trade in the car at the end of the term for another car, and another lease. As I see it, this means they have you forever. They never let you forget that leases result in lower monthly payments. Like, “wow, I can’t believe were going to let you walk out of here with such a great deal!” Once again, the cynic in me comes out. It seems to me that selling cars is a business. Businesses do what they do to make money. Leasing cars makes them money, otherwise they wouldn’t do it. All things being equal, if leasing you a car made them less money than selling you a car, wouldn’t they tend to push the sale rather than the lease? Does anyone find it odd that it is the other way around; namely they are pushing the lease? Do you really think they are, in effect saying: “please come in and give us less of you money”? I think they’re worried you’ll buy the car and they won’t see you again for ten years. Sure, they get less up front with a lease, but do they have you by the balls at the end of the term? Now you’ve got to come back in, if for no other reason than to turn in THEIR car. Then they get to be a salesman all over again, preferably to lease you another car. “Welcome back! Please spend less of your money again”, and again, and again…