Our new car!!! At the ripe old age of 38 I have just purchased my first new car...ever. Sure I had my most beloved Honda Accord for almost 14 years that survived countless cross country journeys and carpool among college friends. But that was originally purchased by my dad for my sister and I to share. And to say the least we got as much out of that little guy as one could hope. But alas I sold it before departing for Kosovo.
And for the past 6 months in DC we have been using the Zip rental cars or borrowing our dear friend Andrew's Honda. But it was never as convenient as having our own wheels. Even though we are only using it for fun (ie I cycle to work and Pranvera gets around mostly by walking or public transport) I knew I wanted to get something that would be fun, sexy, practical and last well into starting a family. So we narrowed it down to a small subset of cross-overs that got pretty good gas mileage and an excellent safety record. And considering the luck I had with my previous Honda I was pleased to narrow down my search to the new CR-V's.
Now the challenge wasn't actually getting a car with all the features I was looking for (we got leather loaded with all but navigation system) but rather the color. All I wanted was Green! And there were apparently only 3 on the entire east coast and no dealers actually had it. Those saying they could get it added all these extra costs and features. So being in no rush and thinking the longer I waited the better deal I could get with the economy, one dealership emailed me reversing a high price they laid out months ago to see if I was still interested. In a matter of 10 minutes they had located the color I wanted, and agreed to match the offer I had from another dealer plus adding mud flaps, pin strip and locking wheels. Problem was it was 4pm Sat afternoon and their offer was only good till 9pm that night so they could get the car on their Feb. books. Whether this was true or not we took the bait, metroed out there (1.5hours), and in reality signed for the car, got our insurance and paid before it finally rolled into the lot after being driven from 2 hours away. They detailed the car, cranked up the 8 speaker stereo system and let us slide into the heated leather seats just as the biggest snowfall in DC in years came down. And came down. And came down. At least I was able to check out the rear view mirror electric heaters and the traction control workedwhile doing donuts in the snow the next day:0
So other than checking it out each day in front of our condo and cleaning the bird poop off it, we actually had to make special weekend plans to take it out for a full road test and headed to the burbs for a nice warm Sunday hike before meeting friends of ours for dinner. A belated Bday dinner for myself and a pre-bday dinner for Pranvera. All and all we are very happy to have a 3rd member of the family and look forward to sharing our new car smell with many on you...
