Era of Perpetual Bachelordom, Day 459- Rest in Pieces

So the car finally bit the dust. Not completely- it could be fixed if I wanted to fork over $400 for an alternator. It wouldn't be the biggest repair bill ever, but at this point why bother? There's been discussion of getting a new one on and off for a while now, and this merely moves up the timetable a bit. So the dust is considered to be bitten at this point.

So how it all went down was on the way out of work yesterday I noticed the low battery light was on, but it eventually went off about 5 minutes in and I figured I was good. Except it got worse as I went home. There was buzzing in the radio which got worse when I hit the brakes and the dashboard lights were a bit dim. I did make it home, turned it off, and it wouldn't start again. So, battery or alternator. Except then this morning completely out of the blue (the tow truck was on the way) it did start again. So I called off the tow truck and headed towards the dealership. I almost made it. It died on the road about 2 blocks out, which at that point was close enough and at the top of a hill enough that I could roll it into one of the nearby parking lots. So, yeah, alternator. And in a final bit of irony after all my years of whining about parking, with no power steering, no power brakes, no nothing, I still managed to get it between the lines. It was horribly slanted and not near any other cars, but it still counts in my book.

So Car Hunt 2010 now moves into high gear (no pun intended), although I'm not far enough into it to say what I'm leaning towards just yet. I need something that's small-ish, easy to park, not a magnet for speed traps, gets good mileage, and isn't a chick car. That last bit's the hardest to check for seeing as it doesn't generally make the advertisements. And my indecision is costing me $33 a day worth of rental car. I have about 2 weeks until that winds up being more expensive than a new alternator. Ready, go.