New cars

Very recently we made some big changes in the vehicle department. We have been considering a bigger car for quite awhile now, years in fact. We've researched, compared, and researched some more to see what might be a good option for us. We both liked the Traverse best, so Chris began keeping an eye out for one's with low mileage that were a decent price.

Last week he found one at Carmax and they moved it over from Las Vegas so we could take a look. And shortly after we were selling the Escape (good-bye, old friend. You have been very good to us and we will, without a doubt, miss you very much.) and buying a 2012 Chevy Traverse with something like 21,000 miles on it.

Here it is!

I love the extra space. Right now we are still just using the middle seat for the girls and we have the additional three seats in back folded down to give us extra large trunk space. The double stroller fits in easily and with room left over for groceries etc.

Our original plan was actually to keep the Escape for Chris (so he could upgrade from his Honda Accord with only one working window and the sun roof and no working air conditioner). But financially that isn't possible. We needed to sell the Escape to help us purchase the newer and larger Traverse, but we still wanted to give Chris at least some kind of upgrade (a car with a working air conditioning system for instance). So we also looked at various options for a cheap, older car that would fit his current needs a bit better. The Honda is still in pretty good shape; it's a Honda after all, but it's old enough that we don't want to sink more money into it since it's well over 200K miles and could be on it's last leg. Or it could still run for a long time for someone who actually wants to invest in a few repairs or someone who can do repairs himself.

Right after we bought the Traverse, we went up north a few hours to look at a Ford Focus Wagon

this isn't our actual car- just a pic I pulled from the internet, but it's white like this so it pretty much looks the same

Yep, we bought the wagon for Chris. He's pretty excited to have a car that has air conditioning again and right before our heat wave last week when the weather popped up to 100+ degrees for a good part of the work week.

Last night we sold our Honda for $100 more than we paid for it to begin with. Nearly 5 1/2 years ago, we purchased the Honda from some acquaintances at a VERY good price. We wondered if it was that great a deal since the car was in the shop for like the first 2 months we owned it, but after a few repairs, it has been well worth every penny we spent on it. and that is even more true, now, 5 years later, when we were able to sell it for more than we paid for it. Hondas hold their value and are great cars. We aren't at a place where we want to invest any more money in repairs ourselves, but I'm sure the new owners can still get a lot of use out of that car with a few little updates and adjustments. The Honda was the very first car we bought together so I was sad to see it go, especially since I'd just said good-bye to our faithful Escape not even a week before. I didn't realize I'd be so emotional about purchasing and selling some vehicles, but we have a lot of memories with them, so it's a little strange to think they are gone and we won't be driving them anymore.

But I guess it's time to focus on making new memories in the newer cars we've purchased. Can't wait for that, too!