Your experience sounds similar to our process of getting a used minivan. Lots of Craigslist, cars.com, Kelly Blue Book, and Carfax. Sort of an obsession for me, actually. Turns out the used minivan market is much tighter than the sedan market. We ultimately got a good deal, in terms of cost vs. KBB value, but part of me still wants to have bought the new, funkier Mazda 5 instead of the used, dull Toyota Sienna. But we paid half the price for a vehicle likely to run at least as long, so I ain’t complaining too much.

However, the downside to this tendency on the web is the increase of the I-can-do-your-job attitude that comes from vast amount of information out there on any topic. It can be a good thing, and it can be a real flaw. As a teacher, I have always had to confront that attitude because, as we all know, anybody can teach. However, parents come in armed with reams of statistics from research, pages copied from some educational advisor’s website, and other not necessarily related bits of evidence to support their theory of how I should run my classroom. People are doing this to all professions, and some accountability is good; too much, however, leads to mediocrity and confusion. When people scream loudly enough that they know what is best,they are often the ones heard, and now these people have “evidence” to prove their points. The quantity of flimsy, biased, and downright false information out there (on the Inet) helps support many crackpots and their crusades.

Not that getting the car you want at a reasonable price is an example of the above rant. Hope all goes well with the new-to-you car acquisition.