cars

before the end of 2005, i had to bite bullet and buy a family car. the gorgeous mrs. k has a ford escape, which i like a lot. we load it full of bikes and kids and junk, gets decent milage, and has plenty of power. myself, i'm used to impractical and inefficient stuff. my last car was a mustang convertible. the kids were crazy over that thing! it wasn't as fast as i like 'em, but it sure was fun on a nice day. we have a bun in the oven, you know, a new family member coming soon, so i had to dig deep and do the right thing.

i started looking at a lot of stuff. what has room, 4 doors, fun to drive, NOT an SUV, american made, from an american make??? sadly, my choices were few, especially since i wanted a manual transmission. i like the pontiac G6, regardless of what the press says about it, but no manual. the new ford fusion is a cool car, but no manual in the 6cyl. model. the neon srt4 is a blast to drive, but, c'mon! the chrysler lx cars are bit old man for me, and no manuals to boot. the obvious choice was the mazda6...6cyl, 5spd, 4 doors, sporty, not expensive, made by ford in the ford plant, and has one of my favorite engines in it, the ford duratec, made in cleveland, oh hi oh.

so i've had this '05 mazda6 since december, and i'm pretty impressed by the gas milage. of course, i would be impressed by anything that got over 20mpgs on the highway. but this thing gets 20-24 in mostly city driving (about 140-150 miles out of a 400 mile tank are highway). not bad for a fun, sporty car with 22ohp.