That's right, Bob, A NEW CAR!!!

It was a tough decision. The final two cars in our showcase showdown where the Subaru Outback and the Rav4 (the Equinox and CRV didn't make the cut after test drives). So, today Jake and I bought our first new car. It was the blind leading the lame, but thanks to copious internet research and our use of an extensive new network (car insurance agents, bank loan officers - all so nice and helpful!) it actually wasn't too bad. It helped that our sales man picked up right away (or never was - we couldn't tell) 'high pressure' or we'd have been headed for the hills. He was very patient and let us test gravel roads - perhaps a no, no from the manager - but eh. Our inability to decided demanded a return 'with the whole family' and we stuck the car seat into both vehicles and made Gram get in the back seat, too. (she was very brave to come on to a car lot with us).

Over lunch at Wendy's (right next to the car dealership, we suspect bugged to the managers office at the dealership next door), we negotiated between ourselves - Jake was behind the Outback, loving the 'driving experience,' I was behind the Rav4 loving the larger passenger compartment. The necessity of car seats (soft of required by law you know, and we do like our kid a lot) won out and we are now the proud owners of a 2007 4 wheel drive Rav4 in 'evergreen' (I quickly nixed black and white options).



Jake is still mourning the outback a bit - I told him we wouldn't be about Pennsylvania in a week. The buying experience was not too bad. It wasn't as 'sleezy' as we expected; got what we felt like was a fair price. And then felt like we were stealing the thing when we saw how low VA taxes, etc are. (guess living in CA and the Netherlands was good for setting your tax bar high -- welcome to rural Virginia! the insurance agent said when we saw how little it would cost to insure our brand new vehicle, almost half as much as the Jeep in Santa Cruz cost).

Frankly, I'm in shock, I can't believe that such a huge thing is marked off our list and that the shiny, detailed, brand new car in the driveway is ours. I think that the arrival of the monthly payments will help!