You can't just override new() like that. You are subclassing other classes that implement new() and excpect it to be called.

You question makes it sound like you don't really understand the difference between object methods and class methods. A Class::DBI object represents a specific row of data. You wouldn't call methods on it that don't correspond to that single row. Maybe you should read a little more primer stuff about OO, like the tutorials that come with the perl man pages.