New Car Musings

Last week, Mike and I were only home on Monday evening. The rest of the week flew by with the store picnic, game night with some good friends, baby-sitting and...purchasing a car. We hadn't planned on purchasing a car on Thursday night, but it just happened.

Mike was at the dealership for just a shade under 10 hours (not kidding) but he drove away with a beautiful Chevy Cruze. Now I have never liked Chevrolet before - or anything GM either - though the Equinox did get me to turn my head and caused me serious consideration when I was looking for a car. And the Malibu is pretty nice as well. I have always been a fan of imports - and my car-owning history shows this to be mostly true. (I had a Ford Focus as my first car....first and last Ford I will ever own.) My husband says I am a certified car snob. And he is right. It has caused more than one argument, I'm afraid.

But this Cruze is nicer than anything we could afford that is imported. It has all the fancy bells and whistles, and because my husband is a staunch user of the GM credit card and has been since he was in high school thanks to his parents good planning, we got a LOT of money off the Cruze. A lot. Knowing that, it was easier for me to say, "Okay, let's do it." In fact, I think I talked him into it even because he was not ready to pull the trigger quite yet!

And even though we had some problems with our salesman (who made a comment about how we can finally put an American flag up on our car and how bankers don't even use their own banks to get financing and praised credit unions to the moon and back - needless to say Mike is filling out the client satisfaction quiz on that guy), he really did turn out to be okay and stayed well past closing time to get Mike set up with Onstar and Bluetooth.

So we are both quite happy with the purchase...and it is fun to drive. It has an Austrian motor and is very similar in all the good ways to my old VW. Perhaps the best thing is that we went from two 2-doors to two 4-doors which has allowed us a ton of space!

Our MINI Cooper will always hold a very special place in our hearts. As Mike said, "Erin, this is the first car we got as a married couple." I will always remember our trips down Valley Parkway in the MINI, with the windows down, enjoying the beautiful scenery and the company. Some very good memories!

And many more memories to be created with this Cruze too. :)

Yep, I've come a long way. :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

43 and worried

I turned 43 yesterday.  A few weeks ago, I had to get my license renewed. I was feeling okay until I pulled out my old license and went to hold it up against my new license image. Mike caught me doing this, and he said, "NO! Don't do it, Erin!" which made us both laugh until I looked down and was shocked by the contrast. Four years ago, 20 pounds lighter (at least), smiling, hair perfectly done (or as well as I could do hair which isn't ever that great), I looked at least my age. Mike once remarked that of all the many license pictures he sees, mine was a really great picture. (But I know four years ago, life was no easier than it is now - in some ways it was harder.) But then the current picture. No life in the eyes or maybe just a lot of sadness, an abundance of wrinkles, hair that was out of place, and attempt at a half-hearted smile and a few additional chins. Haggard is the word that came to mind. Stress has not been kind to my appearance. I mentioned this to my ...
Read more

He's he-ere!

Image
Introducing... Grayson Michael Born 11/25/12 at 3:02 am Grayson entered the world via emergency c-section. Mike got to step into the role of Daddy immediately and went with the baby while I was in the recovery room. They got to spend some time bonding in the nursery. Grayson is such a joy! He and his daddy hit it off immediately. There is nothing more attractive than watching your husband turn into a daddy. Be still my heart. We were in the hospital for SO many days...I could not wait to get home. I missed my bed. Which funny enough, I haven't gotten to sleep in since that first night home. Taking the steps more than once a day is just too difficult right now. So for now, we have been crashing on the couch. Unfortunately Gray had problems with jaundice, and he had light therapy with a bili blanket. Mike told people his son was rocking a low profile LED light bar - just like a police cruiser ;)  I love his little frowny face :) ...
Read more

Ready for the next season...

Image
Usually I love spring. But this year is a different story. Spring has been mostly gray, cold and dreary - and with it, it has brought a great deal of heartache. With the uptick in aggressive behaviors from Grayson (thanks a lot, puberty) and the realization that we are now a year into being provider-less, to being told that Gray was too severe for one provider company, to having to research and call around to group homes to see if they are a good fit for Gray,  to Grayson's constant elopement attempts, to realizing that Grayson goes to therapy and comes home...he has very little to do for fun and he has no one outside of the family or his dedicated therapists to invest in him.  To make matters worse, right now Grayson gets very upset - to the point of property-damaging, when either Mike or I leave the house without him. His team is going to work on that, but it has been very limiting what we can do. The walks I used to take that I enjoyed so much to clear my head are in the pa...
Read more