Get Rich Slowly

If you’re new here, you may want to learn what this site is about. I encourage you to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!When we arrived in San Francisco on Thursday, I rented a car. It was the first time I’d ever done so — we’ve never used one on vacation, and [...]

This is a guest post from Katrina Ramser, a freelance writer who contributes new-car reviews for various websites, newspapers and magazines. She also writes about swimming at SquidKid.
I love new cars. From the luxury mid-size utilities to the efficient little guys, all have that new car smell — clean, pure, new.
I can get wrapped up [...]

The Consumer Reports annual auto issue landed in my mailbox on Saturday. Like last year, I spent the afternoon leafing through it. Unlike past years, I think I managed to avoid the new-car itch. Here are their top-rated vehicles in ten categories (with last year’s top cars in parentheses):

Pickup Truck: Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Crew Cab [...]

As a follow-up to yestereday’s discussion, if I had decided to get a new car — which isn’t the case — I would have had to face the daunting Car-Buying Process: the haggling, the scheming, the underbody protection. This can be intimidating. The game feels rigged against the buyer. Lifehacker recently unearthed a five-minute video [...]

When I went to the street to get the mail on Saturday, the latest issue of The New Yorker was in the box. Walking up the sidewalk to the house, I idly began to remove the subscription cards. I stopped, though, when I came to a full-page cardstock advertisement. I read the front of the [...]

While scouring the web for personal finance stories, I found some time-sensitive advice. The Consumer Reports Car Blog notes that Labor Day weekend can be a great time to buy a new car, especially if you’re looking at last year’s models.

As the model year transitions from 2007 to 2008, a slew of clearance sales [...]

On the morning of December 1st, 2000, as I was driving to work, a tractor-trailer rig sideswiped my car on the freeway. The lugnuts of the truck’s wheel gripped the side of my car, lifted it, and threw it off, casting the 1992 Geo Storm headlong into the guard rail at 50 miles per hour. [...]

During our ongoing discussion of buying a car, somebody pointed to a handy little tool at Edmunds.com. (Edmunds is an excellent resource, sort of like Bankrate, but for cars.) Here’s how their site describes this tool:

You’ve narrowed your choices to two new cars, but you can’t seem to decide which one is really the better [...]

Monday’s collection of car links sparked more discussion than any link dump I’ve ever posted. A lot of you have strong opinions on the subject. Katie writes that all the talk about cars made her think about her own situation.

My husband and I have both saved enough money to cover the price of the new [...]

Alfonso Piñate has cars on the brain. He didn’t just forward one car-related article — he sent me three! And they’re all good. From Jalopnik, here’s an “Ask the Readers”-type question: “Your car recommendations for broke, flakazoid car-ignorant friends?” Author Murilee Martin says: “I always recommend the same three cars.” Those are, in order:

1987-1990 Nissan [...]