New car!
So last weekend we drove 7 hours each way to go to a family reunion in Nebraska. And while we were there, we did something truly ridiculous. We bought a new car. Ok, so we did actually need a new car, and we'd been talking about it for a while. But somehow we progressed from research through "Wouldn't it be wacky if we bought a car while we were here?" straight on to "Where do I sign?" in the space of 48 hours.
Thankfully the Subaru did not die on us. There was oil-related smoke coming out from under the hood and the car every time we stopped, but our mechanic declared it to be safe. He also told us that the oil drip would cost $1000 to repair and that the timing belt could go due to one of the two oil leaks. Hence the thoughts of new car.
Our 1997 Subaru Outback wagonWe bought the old car our first winter in Wisconsin. It had all-wheel drive and awesome brakes, everything we needed to transform my desert-born husband into a snow driver. It was 2 years old, and we thought we'd got a great deal (we didn't, but that's ok). There were a couple of hiccups, but our fabulous mechanic, Harry Harrison (no not the author), kept it running beautifully. It did, however, take a lot of gas. 25 miles to the US gallon (about 6.6 miles per litre). Not bad in the grand scheme of things, but not fabulous. The car was really too big for just the two of us, especially since we gave up hauling ourselves, two friends, and a day's supply of foam weaponry etc plus camping gear.
In Nebraska the family reunion was hosted by Drew's Great-uncle Roy, who owns a Toyota dealership. In his younger days, Uncle Roy and his father, known as HP, had a Ford dealership and a Honda dealership as well. So it didn't take long before Robin (Drew's sister) and Drew's parents started saying "You should talk to Uncle Roy about a car". We went to the Toyota dealership and the salesmen there were very nice. But we didn't like the Matrix (too big, about the same size as our Outback), they didn't have any Scions (Drew doesn't like the back of those anyway), and the Yaris only comes in a 2-door model. So we asked for a recommendation to the Honda dealership.
At the Honda dealership we had a fabulous saleswoman. She let us test drive the Fit (the Jazz in the rest of the world). A good friend here in Wisconsin bought one earlier this summer, and she loves it. So Drew was emailing through the whole thing with questions like "Do you really really like it?" and "About how much did it cost?". We managed to get the Fit Sport (cruise control was non-negotiable for us) with a bunch of fancy accessories thanks to choosing the demo car.
Here's Robin and Drew in front of our new car.
We were a little late for dinner, but everyone forgave us when they saw the new Fit. It's so big inside despite being small on the outside. We could probably have sold several more that night. One of the keys to our being able to buy the car was that the dealership in Omaha had 5 sitting on the lot. Apparently Omaha is a large car, SUV kind of town. We talked to our Fit-owning friends here today, and they said that there's a multi-week waiting list for them in the Madison area. So we wouldn't have been able to make a deal like we did in Omaha.
We're very happy with our new car. It got 36 mpg on the drive home!
Speaking of the drive home, I have to share the name of the worst-named gas station ever. We passed many highway signs for the Kum and Go. Often it was paired with a Subway. Sounded like an underground whorehouse.
Thankfully the Subaru did not die on us. There was oil-related smoke coming out from under the hood and the car every time we stopped, but our mechanic declared it to be safe. He also told us that the oil drip would cost $1000 to repair and that the timing belt could go due to one of the two oil leaks. Hence the thoughts of new car.
Our 1997 Subaru Outback wagonWe bought the old car our first winter in Wisconsin. It had all-wheel drive and awesome brakes, everything we needed to transform my desert-born husband into a snow driver. It was 2 years old, and we thought we'd got a great deal (we didn't, but that's ok). There were a couple of hiccups, but our fabulous mechanic, Harry Harrison (no not the author), kept it running beautifully. It did, however, take a lot of gas. 25 miles to the US gallon (about 6.6 miles per litre). Not bad in the grand scheme of things, but not fabulous. The car was really too big for just the two of us, especially since we gave up hauling ourselves, two friends, and a day's supply of foam weaponry etc plus camping gear.
In Nebraska the family reunion was hosted by Drew's Great-uncle Roy, who owns a Toyota dealership. In his younger days, Uncle Roy and his father, known as HP, had a Ford dealership and a Honda dealership as well. So it didn't take long before Robin (Drew's sister) and Drew's parents started saying "You should talk to Uncle Roy about a car". We went to the Toyota dealership and the salesmen there were very nice. But we didn't like the Matrix (too big, about the same size as our Outback), they didn't have any Scions (Drew doesn't like the back of those anyway), and the Yaris only comes in a 2-door model. So we asked for a recommendation to the Honda dealership.
At the Honda dealership we had a fabulous saleswoman. She let us test drive the Fit (the Jazz in the rest of the world). A good friend here in Wisconsin bought one earlier this summer, and she loves it. So Drew was emailing through the whole thing with questions like "Do you really really like it?" and "About how much did it cost?". We managed to get the Fit Sport (cruise control was non-negotiable for us) with a bunch of fancy accessories thanks to choosing the demo car.
Here's Robin and Drew in front of our new car.
We were a little late for dinner, but everyone forgave us when they saw the new Fit. It's so big inside despite being small on the outside. We could probably have sold several more that night. One of the keys to our being able to buy the car was that the dealership in Omaha had 5 sitting on the lot. Apparently Omaha is a large car, SUV kind of town. We talked to our Fit-owning friends here today, and they said that there's a multi-week waiting list for them in the Madison area. So we wouldn't have been able to make a deal like we did in Omaha.
We're very happy with our new car. It got 36 mpg on the drive home!
Speaking of the drive home, I have to share the name of the worst-named gas station ever. We passed many highway signs for the Kum and Go. Often it was paired with a Subway. Sounded like an underground whorehouse.