Our Hot New Ride

It's been nagging at me that I haven't yet posted about "our hot new ride," the Honda CRV we got after we decided that we didn't want to deal with the eventual trade-in issues related to the Honda Pilot that was damaged in our December 28th accident. We feared that when it came time to trade the Pilot for another car a couple of years down the line, the Carfax report related to the car would show that it had been in a major accident ($14,000+ worth of damage), and we would have difficulty with the trade-in value or a private sale.

So, we've had our new "tango red" CRV for almost two weeks now. I just love that new car smell!!! Getting a new car so unexpectedly made me reflect on our auto journey over the years. I think back to Mark's cars along the way (a Renault [piece of crap] and his Chevy Blazer [pretty nice at the time]), and the cars I've had (my first car: a Pacer, which had a super bad reputation and was really old even then. I went through two clutches in 3 years, and it had nothing to do with my driving). Then there was my Chevy Citation hatchback (whose floor rotted out until the driver was almost sitting on the street), followed by our first "real" car together: a sporty red Volkswagen Jetta (a cute car but a bit of a dud).

We traded in the Jetta when Annalisse was born, obviously needing something a little bigger and a bit more practical for a young family with a lot of baby crap to cart around. At that time we took the plunge and got the "new" Dodge Caravan, which was so wonderful for long trips and moving furniture (which we seem to do constantly). Thrown in over the years was also a Dodge Stratus, and a used BMW 500 series car (our misguided luxury car phase - expensive gas, expensive repairs, but, boy, did that car "go").

Four years ago, we traded in the BMW and the Caravan for a new Honda Civic (my favorite little car - 5-speed and zippy), and the Honda Pilot (we were "over" the Caravan and ready to move onto the next phase of our lives since the kids were getting older and had less "crap" to cart around). Which brings us to present day: the CRV, which is smaller than the Pilot and promises better gas mileage.

Now that Cameron is of driving age (although he has not yet expressed the desire to drive even though he has the driver's permit test book), when he's ready to take that first "spin" will it be in the CRV, or the 5-speed Civic? Although I think it's really important (and fun, and cool) to drive a manual transmission/standard car, I think the safest way is for him to learn to drive will be on the CRV (surely an activity that will result in even MORE gray hairs). Let's face it, there are enough distractions for a young driver without worrying about when to shift. Luckily, he's not asking to learn and we're happy to wait. We don't need another thing to lay awake and worry about each night!

So, as far as new cars go, I think we're good for now. We just need to make sure to avoid another accident (but, of course, they're called "accidents" for a reason).