busybee fluffy rambles

So. Back in 2005, when I moved to Seattle for the first time, I bought a Matrix XR, 5-speed manual transmission. I loved that car. It had a great combination of cargo space, versatility, driveability, and reliability, and was just generally a great fit for me.

I have only two regrets with the Matrix:

1. That I sold it shortly after moving to San Francisco (because parking was expensive and I wasn’t driving enough to justify it)
2. That I didn’t get the XRS model

The difference between the XR and XRS wasn’t huge, but the XRS, being the “sport” model, had significantly more horsepower, and the XR sometimes felt like it chugged a bit, especially when driving on steep Seattle hills. Although with a 20-year-old car (with over 200K miles on it!) who knows how it’ll actually feel.

But anyway. Regrets and nostalgia for the first car I bought as a working professional aside, I have the idea stuck in my head that if I buy the Matrix, it’d be my for-fun messing-around car, and would mostly not get used…

… unless I start renting my Niro out on Turo.

A year after I had sold my Matrix, I ended up moving into a place in San Francisco which came with a parking spot. It went pretty much unused, until 2009 when I got a boyfriend in Cupertino and needed a car so that I could actually visit him on the weekends. I actually tried to get another Matrix but they were super expensive and that’s why I ended up with a Honda Fit as a compromise, which is neither here nor there except that during the week I didn’t need the car at all, so I rented it out on Turo (then called “RelayRides”) and it was a nice little source of supplemental income, and the car basically paid for itself.

When I moved back to Seattle I kept renting the Fit out on Turo, but due to a combination of factors it became a pretty horrific experience pretty quickly (mostly due to my home’s location and its awkward underground parking space). However, those factors aren’t the case anymore.

So what I’m thinking I’ll do is I’ll buy the Matrix, rent the Niro out on Turo, and have the Matrix as the car that I’ll drive when the Niro is unavailable. And then that means also having better range if I opt to take a road trip, and being able to drive stick again, because historically, driving stick has done a lot to reduce my anxiety because it gives me more control over the drive. (Also, historically, the L2 self-driving features on both the LEAF and the Niro have actually made me feel more anxious because I’ve felt less in control!)

Also I’d probably be way less anxious about damaging a 20-year-old economy hatchback/wagon than a 5-year-old midrange SUV.

Spec-wise, the Matrix is a little smaller than the Niro in every dimension, but yet has somewhat more cargo volume (due to the seats folding fully flat and also not needing to accommodate a gigantic battery in the floor). Also being from the pre-infotainment era it’s trivial to upgrade the car stereo to something with wireless CarPlay, which actually makes it a little nicer UX than the infotainment system in the Niro (which is wired, although I have a somewhat janky wireless adapter for it).

Of course, getting a gas car (and a 20-year-old one at that) is a pretty big step backwards, especially for an avowed EV nerd/absolutist. EV conversion kits do exist but they’re expensive and probably not worth it, at least not until the engine dies completely (and being a mid-00s Toyota, that probably won’t be for a long time).

I’m also, like, anti-car, so why would I own two of them?

Sometimes I don’t understand how my own brain works and I just have to roll with it.

But anyway. If I do end up buying the Matrix, and things don’t really pan out with it, I can always just, y'know, resell it. Which is definitely less of a concern than paying for a rental and just hoping that Kia gets my car back to me in a reasonable amount of time and reimburses me for the rental (assuming they can’t actually follow through on a loaner, and I mean, given their track record I’m not expecting there to actually be one, no).

I do know that the Matrix is going to need some work. The current owner says that it needs a new variable timing solenoid (which is pretty cheap to replace) and I’m sure it’ll need its brakes and tires inspected and serviced. The price is considerably lower than KBB value and it hasn’t sold after being on the market for a week, but I suspect that’s just because it’s a stickshift and also, y'know, old.

I’ll know more on Thursday.