new car smell

almost as good as the new baby smell....

Once we knew we were moving, we knew we were going to have to get a newer car. Two cars with upwards of 100k miles and both over 10 years of age did not sit too well -- especially since one of them was running upwards of $500 in repair bills every 6 months. So....which car to buy?

My first inclination was to try my best to ensconce L and Rohan in as much metal as possible. That led to one obvious choice -- the Hummer. Buuuuut, seeing as how we can't afford 10 gallons of gasoline every time i need groceries, we needed something that is actually practical.

After trying to change a diaper in a regular four door car, the appeal of a minivan was front and center. Not being ready to completely capitulate to the suburban-yuppie stereotype, we looked for something else still. Enter the sport wagon. Actually Mazda (Mazda 5) has a pretty nice looking car coming out that would have probably fit the bill exactly, but not wanting to wait that long nor wanting to buy the first year models, we dug a bit deeper....

My only two requirements were that the car must have side impact airbags and ABS (images of a giant SUV T-boning the car ran rampant through my mind). Not too many cars in the used car market have those options -- well at least not ones that get more than 25 miles to the gallon. We zeroed in on the Toyota Matrix, the Mazda 3, and the Subaru Forester..... Both are options on the Mazda and Toyota, and ABS is standard on the Subaru (but side airbags weren't available)...So, down to two cars. Priced about the same, the Mazda is actually a pretty good deal - bigger engine, more standard options, sportier feel....But not a toyota. Besides the Matrix actually felt a bit bigger.

Ultimately settling on the Matrix, we then got stuck with finding one that actually had those options. Leveraging the 'net...I got pretty good pricing on the car we wanted, but by the time we came out to buy, the car was all gone. The only one available with said options was located about 250 miles away and we ended up with our fourth color choice, black (after dark blue, light blue, and grey), but it does look nice.