Alright, so after a 11:00 call from the Honda place (name omitted for everyone's sake) by a Brian, my mother decided that today would be a good day to go look at Hondas there, since David's Civic SI needed an oil change as well. So, we got there, and they said that Brian wasn't here today (odd enough eh?). So we walked around the used car lot and looked at the CRV's, and everything they had has beige interior. Now, why the Salesman with us was saying that "Beige is just 2 steps away from social security" I'll concede that I don't really normally oppose beige. Hell, my van is beige interior and I kind of like it. But Honda, they've got a special kind of beige. They've got the kind of beige that you'd get if you puked after too many undercooked brownies (Hopefully, I can avoid such analogies in the future, we'll see), it's just a nauseatingly weak bridge between brown and tan, and it sucks. That said, I test drove one of them anyways. Fine vehicle, though the parking break wasn't very cooperative, drives similar to the van. Basically that, this is not an SUV or a Van feel to it. I then backed back into the spot I took it out of (and everyone thinks that they never let you even move the cars near other cars, *shrug*) then went looking around some more. We were told that Brian was there today, and after a long long wait they got him. So we went around back and found two 2002 CRV's, gray interior, one LX one EX. Now, since I'm certain that dilineation is lost on most, here's how it breaks down. The LX is the base model, coming in Front Wheel Drive, the EX is the more premium model, coming in Front Wheel or 4 Wheel with the following nicities added: Cd player is a 6 disc, Sunroof, Alloy Wheels, Tinted Windows. So, we asked for the specifics on those, and Brian came back to tell us that the LX was tied up in paperwork being a recently repossed vehicle. So we sat down to haggle over the EX. My mother said 14,500 including tax tags and title, so Brian took that number back, talked to the person, and came back saying too low, 18,000. To which my mother responded by saying that we could get a new CRV for that price. Brian went back, and came back saying that the car would be Honda Certified (trademark)(7 years Powertrane, 12 months non) but that he could offer us, and he threw in a Kelley Blue Book quote, 18,550 (Kelley Blue Book quotes it as 18,533 for the record, though he'd used different options to price it up a bit to make it look like we were saving, or so it seems) or 19,900 with Certification, both those not including tax, tags, title, or documentation. My mother said too high, Brian went back to haggle, and she turned to me with "Didn't the number start out lower?" Which was true, typically haggling goes in a progression towards the middle. Brian brought out Chad, who was alot more confrontation, responding to my mother's we could buy a new one with, "Then buy a new one", and then accomplishing absolutely because he just repeated step one over, by telling Brian to take her 14,500 quote as a drive off and then left. Brian just shrugged and said that sometimes he's baffled by his co-workers, and went back. The price stayed the same, Chad came back and did nothing again, so we left. Fair enough, a New 2004 EX is about 25,000. But this was a 2002 EX, with 43,000 miles on it. Yes, almost 50,000 miles in the space of two years. The van barely has 115,000 and it's an 89. Oh well, I'd prefer an LX anyways, assuming it ever gets out of paperwork.

So, dear friends, if you know of vehicle capable of transporting me and my 6'4" self and my bass within the following parameters, let me know.
Vehicle cannot be an SUV, I'd like to spend my pocket cash on gas as little as possible without having to not drive.
Vehicle cannot be a truck, because that, I'll tell you up front, cannot transport my bass.
Civics, Camrys, Volkswagon Beetles, all do not have the size for the bass. The latter is just too small, the formers have shallow trunks.
Within roughly the price above.

Because the sad fact it, the van will not survive the highway well enough to be used at Tech, especially with the way it doesn't retain coolant.