I apologize for wasting bandwidth on my petty struggles with internal combustion transportation issues. But having endured so much on the topic already, you deserve the closure of being informed that I did buy a new (used) car today.

This is my “new” car – a 2009 Toyota Rav-4 (dealer’s photo). It’s a bare-bones model, with no “smart” features I’m aware of, other than the remote key fob. It’s a southern car, so there’s little rust on it, always a nice thing up here in Road Salt Country.

It turned out to have higher mileage than advertised, so I persuaded the dealer to knock a couple hundred bucks off his asking price (when a Norwegian does this, I believe, there’s someplace he can apply for a medal. I’ll have to look it up). It drives nicely, as far as I can tell so far.

My favorite thing (aside from the pretty color) is that it takes regular gas. The Subaru only accepted high test, and it got worse mileage than this one does. So that cheered me considerably.

Toyotas have a good reputation for reliability. Pray, if you will, that that will prove true for this marginal writer and Viking.