HEY!
Okay, now that I've got that out of the way...
I'm a semi-retired techie (out of Silicon Valley), long time motorcyclist who started my car life in Austin-Healeys and Triumphs back in the 60's. Still have 3 bikes, all Triumphs, all 3-cylinders, and all BRG. ;)
After my quarter-million mile Audi (A4 Avant Quattro 2.8) refused to start and demanded a cash infusion I was not willing to provide, the wife and I decided that we really didn't need another 'utilitarian' vehicle (our other car is a Mercury Mariner) and wanted something fun. After looking around at the options, we decided a Miata was fun, and drove several. All of them were, in one way or another, disappointing. Small irritants mostly; but one in particular drove badly (probably needed alignment). Along this path we also decided we wanted an NB, for one it would be easy to find a nice one within our budget, and we liked the lines of the car.
There was no rush; but one day I got an e-mail ad for a pretty green one that looked great in pictures (don't they all? ). We would be in the area of the dealer the following day on an errand, and decided to stop by. First look and we were both frothing at the mouth. After a brief test drive, my wife looks at the salesman (who really knew nothing about the car) and asked "Can we take it home right now?"
Keep in mind, she's 14 years old and has 158,xxx miles on the clock:
She drives as good she looks, has been given a very strong bill of health by my trusted mechanic and friend, and has been getting lots of TLC since she arrived here two weeks ago.