This morning we went over to Augusta to get Donna measured for her new lenses. Not eyeglass lenses, but eye lenses. Our optometrist has been keeping an eye (pun not intended) on her cataracts for years, but about a month ago Donna noticed a big change in vision and when she went in to see the eye guy he said it was time to get the cataracts fixed. After the measurements we set up the appointments for the surgeries, the right eye will be in late June and the left one will be fixed about four weeks later in July.
Before driving to Atlanta get a room at a hotel near the airport we went over to the Mazda dealer to drive one of the new fangled Miatas. The Gerald Jones Mazda inventory hasn’t changed since three weeks ago, but we had the time and needed to get inside one and go for a drive. Wade got us the key to a black Grand Touring that was sitting just out front. The thing was pretty dirty and the inside was dusty, but it didn’t really matter because even if we loved the new car, this was not going to be one we’d buy.
Not only are the cup holders in a strange spot to use, but they also interfere with placing your elbows in a comfortable position on the center console, so we yanked them out and tucked them in the cubby between the seats on the back wall. I dropped the top and crept out of the parking lot. I had a short loop planned that was familiar from doing the Susan Komen BMW Drives all those years ago. Good thing I didn’t want to go far as the low fuel light was on and the gauge is on one notch above E.
Part way through we pulled into a grocery store lot and swapped drivers. Donna drove about halfway back before pulling over to let me finish the loop. We thanked Wade again, he said he’d call when they got a manual sport in stock again and we parted ways.
We both thought the ND drove nice, as it should because of its newness (the Emperor felt like that way 13 years ago too.) We both thought it was more claustrophobic compared the our current car. You do seem to sit down in it more than our second generation car. The lack of a glove box in front of the passenger in its traditional spot seemed weird, but probably after a while could be adjusted to. While the passenger foot well isn’t as short as the third gen car, the hump adjacent to the transmission tunnel is still a big hindrance to Donna’s storage of water bottle and purse in their usual spots.
Neither one of us are all gaga about getting this new car, but it is just going to come down to whether we want to keep the old familiar and currently not so reliable car or go ahead and bite the bullet and except new, reliable and slightly quirkier one.