Pleasantly Chaotic: Biggest Purchase for the Baby! (and me too)

Okay so how pitiful is it when you justify a big expense to yourself as for the baby?

My explorer has had issues for a while now. Seriously.

I’ve been living with this gremlin of a electrical issue – my windshield wipers turn on and off by themselves – and this is NOT a standard feature! My car decides when and how it’s going to turn the wipers on, and this issue I’ve been living with for about 4 or so years. (It started when Chris was in boot camp and he enlisted in 2003- you do the math). For the past couple of years it goes through spark plugs like NO OTHER… (like every 4-6 months one or more needs to be changed.) And then just last week it shifted hard while driving down the freeway (highway to you Texans) which sadly was the nail in the coffin. Chris’ response was “If it does it again – we are trading it in. I’m not paying for a transmission!”

So thus began the great debate. What kind of car to get? Did we want a car, another SUV or a truck? I drive more than Chris does, so gas mileage is a priority (especially with the rising gas prices) however Chris did not want to make it a sole factor in our choice. We kept both the Explorers until they where paid off (mine for almost a year after paying it off) so we aren’t the type to trade in a vehicle every two years or anything insane like that. I wanted something that Jr’s car seat would fit in the middle of the back seat – the safest place I’m told – and two adults could comfortably sit on either side. This and making sure the stroller that I registered for where my two BIGGEST requirements (outside of gas mileage) out of what ever car we ended up with.

Last week I did a lot of research on cars that I thought I liked online, researched options ect. A lovely feature on most manufacture’s websites these days is that you can “build” the model of the car that you are looking at to get an idea of what features they offer and a general idea of how much it is going to run you. I used this feature a lot! I had narrowed it down pre actually going out to the dealerships and looking to: Hyundai Sonata, Ford Fusion, the VW Passat and a Nissan Altima.

The Nissan Dealership here in Corpus is incredibly RUDE. We had looked at a car there once before when we weren’t really in the market to buy and the sales guy was a jerk. The chick the other night… well lets just say she put a new meaning to the term RUDE. I will NEVER recommend anyone purchase a car from them.

The Sonata didn’t work for me because all of the interiors where dark. I don’t like feeling like I’m in a cave. By the end of the first day that we went out and looked at cars I was pretty sold on the Ford Fusion.

Yesterday Chris was off most of the day so after going to school we went back to the Chevy dealership (one I hadn’t considered but Chris wanted to check out the warranty – a big selling point for him) to test drive a Malibu and also back to Ford to test drive the Fusion. Both where nice cars. Unfortunately the Fusion did not have the leg and head room that the Malibu did. There where some options on the Fusion that had pretty much sold me the first day, but for the price the Malibu had many more options. Remote start is pretty nice – especially with how hot it gets here in the summer (an added feature for after Jr arrives in the heat of summer). There where some other options that were nice too – but the biggest other than the fact it gets 22mpg in town (that was HWY for the Explorer – IF we are lucky) is that it comes standard with the Latch System in the middle of the back seat. Technically you can put 3 car seats in the back. Safely!

Here are a couple pictures of the new ride :). The deal we got includes window tint – I just haven’t made the appointment for it yet.