New car!

[wrenb]

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 wagon

We 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.

Comments

[red-ruby.livejournal.com]

Ooh, shiny new car - nice! Congrats. (It's called the Fit here too, although I'm not sure if the Fit Sport is available or if my Dad just decided to stick with the cheaper simpler Fit. He did, however, wait for a red one to be shipped in ;-) .
I agree, those gas station/food shop names sound awful....the gas station awful on its own, and worse still with the Subway. Reminds me of the gag from a Canadian sitcom where the townspeople decide to "erect the biggest hoe" as a tourist attraction (like the nearby "biggest egg", the "biggest rake" and so on....)

[wrenb.livejournal.com]

We would have been pretty happy with the basic Fit (in a fabulous bright blue, which is our equivalent of your red), but with a 7 hour drive home we really wanted cruise control. It's one of those oddities of car companies that the one feature you really want is only available in combination with the ones you don't care about. We saw one car online where in order to get a sunroof you also had to have satellite radio?!

Cars and packages

[abernat.livejournal.com]

I kinda understand why that's happening, actually. The car is only "made" in certain packages - they can customize, sure, but there's ~4 main product lines. So if you want the better audio system, that's package C which includes a sunroof.

Fit did the same thing, only it was only 2 - base and Sport. I didn't really care about the wheels, the spoiler was an ugh, but cruise control - yeah. Especially since LOML likes long drives.

I like long drives with tools at the end, personally :D

[steuard.livejournal.com]

So... was the whole reunion in Omaha, or somewhere else generally nearby? (Having grown up in Lincoln makes me naturally excited any time Nebraska is mentioned. Kim and I were in Nebraska ourselves just over a month ago for my mother's re-marriage, though we only got as far east as North Platte.)

[wrenb.livejournal.com]

I thought the reunion was going to be in Bellevue (an Omaha suburb, I understand) but it turns out that Uncle ROy and Macaela moved into Omaha. So I spent most of the time in northwest Omaha.

[steuard.livejournal.com]

As it happens, I lived in Bellevue for a couple of years. But since the second of those years was my first year of preschool, I can't say that I remember it much. :) (Although for quite some time, my earliest memory was the terror of being in a child seat behind my mother as she rode her bike at high speed down a steep hill near our apartment there. I'm afraid that's become just a memory of a memory now, though.)

[mijven.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I'm not entirely happy with my outback, and your Fit does look so cute that I have to go investigate it. But I was actually considering breaking down and getting a kid transport vehicle (or a hybrid) next time round....

:)

[mijven.livejournal.com]

Oh shoot - the first car I see (after yours) would have to be bright orange. (My equivalent to Barbara's red and your blue. ;)

[wrenb.livejournal.com]

My friend loves her orange Fit. . And actually there's a lot of room in the back seat. Drew and I rode in hers for an hour each way last month quite comfortably.
I know your kids are getting big now, but part of the reason we bought a new car was because the old Outback didn't have latch, so now we have a carseat friendly vehicle for the HFCs.

[mijven.livejournal.com]

But... we're consideringly looking for a car to transport the kids AND their friends. Or us and a grandparent or two. Making that third row of seating sorta enticing. ;)

This is still terribly cute!

[wrenb.livejournal.com]

Third row is a good thing! I've got my fingers crossed that there will be a clever fuel-efficient solution by the time I need to worry about that.

[abernat.livejournal.com]

I know so many people that have minivans because of the third row. If you need it, you need it.

Me, I'm not tied to a hybrid if there's a good, fuel-efficient normal car. The hybrids have a serious penalty in terms of a higher price.

[jminnis.livejournal.com]

Nifty car. I hope you guys like it. :)

Burning oil reminds me. The engines on my grandparents' boat have been burning oil since before I was born. Each time before taking it out, my grandfather would check the oil level and top it off.

[abernat.livejournal.com]

I didn't mind the burning oil. Heck, things burn oil - you check and top off.

I minded the smoke coming from under the hood. So it was a location problem, not an existence problem. And it was noticeable.