Then, if you have one of sexier models, you’ll attract attention on road, filling up, and in shopping mall parking lot.

Yes, you can pretend you’re driving Autobahn with wind blowing your hair. But beware of state troopers just waiting for an “arrest me red” entry on their ticket issuing track record.

Before You Fall In Love . . .

Before you step into that showroom and fall in love, consider following practicalities:

1) How much do you want to spend? $20,000? $30,000? Or more?

2) What’s tradeoff between performance (power) and gas mileage? Higher performance usually equals less gas mileage.

Does vehicle use premium gas? Right now, difference between premium and regular is 20 cents per gallon. At 20 miles per gallon and 15,000 miles per year, cost differential is $150.

3) What about reliability? Some upscale models cost considerably more to maintain and have a higher incidence of repair costs. Would you appreciate paying $125 just to diagnose problem when check engine light comes on? Or paying $70 for an oil change?

4) In a climate where snow and ice are winter realities, do you want to drive it year round? Or store it over winter?

A rear wheel drive sports car is impractical for winter driving. A front, all-wheel, or 4-wheel drive sport car can be driven in snow and ice, if you use all-season tires. If little devil comes with performance tires, you will want to buy all-season tires (and possibly rims) for winter driving. Add another $1500 to price of car for right tires and rims.

Do Your Homework . . .

5) Once you’ve decided price, performance, gas mileage, reliability, and practicality for all-season driving, get on Internet. Here you can compare models and pricing and read reviews. Google “buying a new car” or “new car prices” and several sites will pop up.

Confused as to how Euro could possibly be affecting his small and seemingly insignificant business, I asked him how. “Because of Euro!”

He went on to explain, after calming down of course, that distributor that he orders his vintage parts from had increased their prices by roughly 30% due to dollar’s poor performance against Euro. Apparently, it takes about $1.30 USD to buy same merchandise that may be acquired with 1 Euro.

Essentially, relationship between dollar and Euro is same as we have always had with Canadians—only, we have become Canadians in this bizarre scenario!

After getting off phone with dad I decided to investigate this currency exchange question a lot further and came to one startling but very true realization—the stock market is for chumps! Foreign Exchange is where it’s at.

The act of exchanging legal tender of one country for that of another. People who play currency exchange market (Forex) do! With same amount of analysis or less in most cases, people anticipate rate at which one currency will convert into another and Presto!—profits please!