Join Me in Snarkville

(and most reason).  Don’t mind me, I’m in the ‘what did we think we were doing phase’ which will pass shortly, I’m sure.  Oh, wait, you have no idea what I’m talking about right?

Let me sum up, we bought a $70 gas tank of gas on Friday night.  On Sunday afternoon… we bought a new car.

Ok, ok.  The reality is that we’ve been arguing talking about a new car for some time. We had some basic issues with our current large car: expensive gas and its hunger; huge blind spots that whole cars fit into (ask me how I know, k?); the fact that we’d (actually me mostly, since Prince is driven to have the closest parking space in the world) drive around a parking lot looking fo a spot WIDE enough for us; and finally, it was losing major value daily.  To the last point, I should mention that it was completely paid for (a fact I’m really proud of), but in three years it was worth a mere HALF of what we paid for it and with gas prices rising the value of the LARGE crossover was dropping.

So, about a year ago, Prince started talking about a new car, specifically a hybrid.  I put pencil to paper and noted we’d not save a penny by doing this.  About a month ago, we drove the new MINI Clubman, which I loved driving (despite people thinking it is less than attractive), and I spent a month trying to figure out how we could be a 2 MINI family.  But alas, we have a child who needs room, and I often am taking stuff to be shipped and hauling simple things like Costco runs and groceries.  But it firmly planted the seed that SMALLER isn’t a bad idea.

Then the Queen Mum and Dad came to visit and rented a Rav4 — which I have to say is adorable.  Then I saw the cargo area and might have swooned, just a little.  Small, economical (ish), AND with cargo area.  So, Saturday afternoon, we took a break and test drove the Rav4 and hated it.  To be fair, it didn’t help that the sales guy kept pushing us to used and I’m not entirely sure that we got it out of 3rd gear.  But Prince suggested we try a Ford Escape.

So we had a few minutes and took a look at the inside of the Escape.  I have to say Ford’s have improved bunches since my ‘89 Escort and since I was never a fan of the Explorer, I haven’t really given them a look in years.  We took out a hybrid on a test drive and began to fall in love.  It is peppy, economical, and rather cute.

Saturday evening, Prince did some research.  I went into “We don’t need a new car mode.”  I said I wanted to wait, but really didn’t. I wanted to prove that somehow we’d made an informed not reactionary decision.  Prince thought briefly that we could resist the sirens call, but alas, not truly possible.

We bought a car, a Ford Escape Hybrid, yesterday.  We had thought about it for a longish time (ok, ok, long for us) and finally the time was right.  But there is ONE thing I really want to know….

…Why is it that despite your best efforts and fair warnings to the dealer, buying a car, any car, will take 4 hours!  FOUR hours.  Mind you, we’d have gotten out of there in 3 *IF* there wasn’t a bolt in our tire that we saw as we were driving off.  How many people in a dealership know how to change a tire?  Not as many as you would think OR hope.

And finally, Prince would like to think of this as part of the Purge of ‘08.  Both downsizing and cleaning out.  I think he’s stretching.