New Wheels...Again.

We bought a car on Monday. It was a bittersweet moment.

As you know we recently found out that our car doesn’t fit a rear facing car seat. This was a big blow being that it meant we had to bid farewell to our beloved VW (i.e. stellar gag mileage). We had planned to replace the VW with a Honda Pilot. Aside from the gas consumption a Pilot is the ideal vehicle for us; so why then could we just not seem to bring ourselves to do it. We have the $, we’ve had it for awhile but there was just something…

Last week we had an epiphany; something we thought about on and off and brushed aside; ok I brushed it aside. Why not get a cheaper car and put all that extra money towards student loans. Seems like a no brainer eh, but not when you have your heart set on a vehicle with clearance, leather seats, AWD, tinted windows, lots of room…ohhh lots of room!!

By buying a cheaper car we can get out of debt two years earlier than scheduled, which means we could have all student loans paid off either before or right after Joe graduates. With the job market as it is this just seemed like a painfully good idea? So, the new wheels are nothing fancy. Here’s the breakdown.

PROS:
-Spent $10,000 less than budgeted.
-It’s a Honda Accord wagon with 94K (i.e. should easily last a few more years)
-Passed the engine diagnostic test with flying colors; the mechanic was impressed upon inspection of car and engine related gizmos.
-The car's old enough that Joe should be able to work on it himself.
-It has a sunroof
-I will not have to be so uptight about keeping it immaculate, because it’s already not. Off road here we come.
-We would welcome a fender-bender, a little bump to the back of the wagon and the bumper will fall completely off, then we can get a new one.
-We get to keep good gas mileage.
-It fits an infant car seat.

CONS
-It isn’t much to look at.
-The cargo areas not shaped very user friendly
-We have none of the features we hoped to gain in the Pilot.
-Sure NOW diesel’s cheaper than regular.
-Were still going to look like the Clampetts when we travel.
-Were going to NEED a bigger car top carrier.
-It's a dark greenish color; and I have a green car phobia.
-Did I mention the bumper is falling off…;)

Should be interesting, if we can just get through the next few years we’ll be ok. We’ll get that Pilot, just might not be until 2011. Perhaps the car seat not fitting was a blessing in disguise, made us take a step back and say “hum, do we really NEED a NICE vehicle.” Who knows, maybe there’s a reason we need to be out of debt in two years…life can be kind-of funny like that.

PS Still have yet to sell the VW. Any takers?