Applebaum Car Saga Continues: Buy or rent?

Applebaum's '91 Opel before the fire. She called it the "A-baum."
Anne Applebaum has set the record straight on her blog that her car did not explode. Postimees, among others, reported earlier this week that Applebaum's car had blown up.
In an exclusive interview with the Livonian Chronicle, however, she lamented the loss of her 1991 Opel--"it was like family and twice as articulate as many journalists I've known"--and debated whether to rent or buy. "European leasing contracts are appealing," she admitted, "but I think the market will go south for a while longer." She added that even for a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, credit is not easy to get in Eastern Europe.
Applebaum refused to comment as to whether she'd forgotten to put oil in the car on a regular basis. "It's an Opel," was all she would say. "You put gas in them, they run."