Old And New

We are having a pretty Happy New Year so far and hope you are too.

Here is a nice New Years' parallel to that classic image of the dusty old codger stepping aside for the bouncing new baby - but with pickup trucks.

I bought my Dodge Dakota in June 1996. It has been a reliable truck that has taken us where we wanted to go and hauled a lot of our stuff besides. But it has 170,000 miles on it and I had been thinking about replacing it. It turns out that right now car dealers really, really want to move their inventory. On Tuesday I bought a 2008 (new) Chevy Colorado at a discounted price. This is a basic truck with a 4-cylinder engine, two-wheel drive and manual shift - just like the Dakota.

I am a fairly brand-loyal guy and intended to get another Dakota, but learned that Dodge does not make them with a standard cab anymore. Then I found the Colorado, which is a midsize truck like the Dakota but does have a standard cab version. The fire-engine red was luck of the draw, but I like it. Maybe I'll start to get speeding tickets now.