Shell Shocked

Today I only had to work a few hours, so I had the whole day to hang out with Adam. We recently put a deposit down on a puppy, and Adam thought we should check out some bigger cars in preparation for dog ownership. Sure, some people buy bigger cars when they are expecting children, but we decided dog ownership requires a car suited for dog-toting duties, so off to check out the various small SUV's on the market. We had a few requirements: 1) 4-wheel drive, since next year we will either be living in Seattle or Denver 4-wheel drive will be important for those jaunts to the mountains, 2) fold down rear seats, need to have lots of cargo room and space for the pup to hang out, 3) moonroof, Adam *loves* his moon roof and 4) not ugly (this was my requirment, but a very important one I thought).

First stop, the Subaru dealership to check out the redesigned Subaru Forester. This particular vehicle has the added benefit of being one of the only small SUV's available as a 5-speed, and given our love of the manual transmission, this was defnitely a selling point. It also had a huge moonroof, and was quite reasonably priced. Good start, but I was hungry. And a hungry Tracy is a grumpy Tracy, so off to In-n-Out Burger to refuel before our next stop--the Honda dealership.

This was the one Adam was most interested in, as he had decided he wanted a Honda Element. The main problem with this car is it is in blantant violation of rule #4--UGLY. And very weird inside. After experimenting with the hanging up of the back seats, we decided this wasn't the car we wanted, and on we went to check out the CRV. While not as spacious as the Forester, Adam enjoyed driving this one more, as it handles more like a car than the Forester. But I still liked the openess (and expansive headroom!) of the Forester. So no clear winner.

Third, was the Jeep dealer. Adam was interested in the $2.99 gas guarantee, I wasn't really interested in anything. We looked at the Compass (I think) but too much plastic, too small windows. Although it was the cheapest, it looked the cheapest, and by this time, my boost from the In-n-Out cheeseburger was wearing off. I could only handle one more dealership, so Toyota it was. And luckily they were having a President's Day BBQ, so I had a hot dog, and a hamburger and got my energy up for the 4 hour marathon that followed.

Here we looked at the RAV-4. The first model we looked at was the highest-end one they had on the lot. V-6 engine, 4-wheel drive, leather interior, dual climate control, heated seats. Very fancy. It had some nice touches, like the ability to lay the seats flat from the far back, rather than having to go through the middle doors. The back door opens out, rather than up. It's very similar to the CRV, but a bit more spacious. We test drove two different cars--the sport model with the standard engine, then we took the V-6 for a spin. Adam was hooked. Since he was planning on replacing his car with the new car, he wanted one with similar performance. We asked the requisite "can you run the numbers" question, for the sport model, 4-wheel drive, V-6. But quickly learned unlike Seattle, where 4-wheel drive cars are everywhere, no one in Southern California really has any need for them, so there were no 4-wheel drive RAV-4's anywhere in the greater LA or Phoenix area. They did however have that super fancy model we had looked at when we first arrived. And if we were interested, they could sell it to us for the price of the sport model...

So after much negotiating, pricing of trade ins, adjustment of payment schedules, and addition and removal of various options, we are now the proud owners of this car (yes, it is green):And I no longer have my Corolla. Apparently Toyota dealerships are more interested in taking Toyota's in trade-in than Mitsubishi's, so Adam still has his car, and I get to drive the big fancy one. Strangely, I miss my little Corolla. I'm sure I will get over it though. We're both a little shell-shocked right now, as we didn't really mean to buy a car today. I hope the dog appreciates what we've done for him.