A New Ride and a New Gig

The new baby isn't the only thing that is happening around here! Although it may seem that way, but hey this blog is from my point of view. For YEARS and I mean years the hubby has been bugging me to get a truck. My answer was always.....the gas mileage! We live in California where they use every excuse to tax all the things including the gas, so ours is usually way above average!

Well we moved into the mountains and we hit two snow storms where neither vehicle could go anywhere and he pressed me harder. We need a 4x4 and I need something that I can transport all the "garbage" from our backyard to the dump with. Still not convincing enough for me, but I entertained the idea of getting a used truck. Who needs to spend $50k on a vehicle? No me, Miss Frugal Franny!

He searched and searched all the websites and came across a Black Ram 1500 that he was interested in. I hate black vehicles, but it's not mine right? When we bought our SUV he was adamant that it was going to be black, but I convinced him that grey is better. The same thing occurred when he bought his Mustang back in 2004. I like grey cars. They show less dirt...in my opinion. So we walk onto the lot to look at this black truck and sitting right nest to it is a dark grey 1500 Big Horn with dual exhaust and all the bells and whistles. Of course I like that truck, but I am not going to say anything because it of course costs more. We look at both trucks and I see that he keeps going to the grey one and sitting in it and opening all the things....and that's the only one we test drive. Done Deal. Signed, Sealed, Delivered. He is ecstatic! It needs running boards and we need a tow ball, but it's got all the things he needs.....and its pretty. LOL

We get it home, and after a couple of days he turns to me and says, "You know the last three times I went to get a car I wanted black and I left with Dark Grey!" I looked at him and said, "You know where your mistake there is?" "Yea! Bringing you! HAHA" True story! But he is happy and glad he picked the better truck, even though it wasn't the color he wanted.

In other hubby news. He got a new job! Once he starts training I will fill you all in on the details! We are so excited for him! He will be doing something that he LOVES!

Pushy...pushy...pushy

Last weekend the hubby had the entire weekend off from work. It's rare and I love it. Upon our exit from the bedroom on Saturday I asked him what he wanted to do that day and he said he was content with lounging around. Well I had other plans in mind, as usual, and asked him if he wanted to go see a movie instead. We planned on getting lunch and seeing the 4:30 showing of The Family......a movie I wasn't entirely too interested to see. I just hate spending $12+ for a ticket each, plus snacks (hubs must get snacks) to see a so so movie. It really bothers me. We got our lunch and because we had an hour and half or so before the movie, went window shopping for rugs and possibly a new television. Upon leaving the store, I made a comment along the lines of, "one of these days we should test drive some cars." We have been considering the prospect of a new car for a couple of years, but like the idea of not having a car payment. Once I uttered those words, he responded with "We can do that today!" And so began our adventure into car sales.

I had no idea what to look at. I know what I like, but rarely get a make and model when I see it driving down the road. My requirements were: affordability, reliability, good on gas, and 4 doors. (hello were trying to start a family) The hubs had seen the Hyundai Sonata at a car show and wanted to try it out, so we went there first. I was surprised at all the features and storage the car had, and it was relatively decent priced for a fully loaded sedan. We drove it around and for a 4-cylinder it had a lot of get up and go. It was a really nice option, but something about a sedan just didn't seem right for a family. Once we got all the information we needed we made our way over to Honda. We walked the lot a couple of times, but no-one came over to assist us, and really I don't see myself driving a Honda....they aren't very spacious comparably to other vehicles. After Honda, we decided to make one last stop. We went to Ford to look and see if they had anything comparable in a sedan. They did, but affordability-wise we would have had to purchase a used vehicle, and that's not something we had considered. I had mentioned to the hubs before that I like the Escape and the salesman took us over to the base model. The new body style and features were very nice, and I like the fact that it was a mid-size SUV. Something that sounded a little more up the alleyway for kids. It was spacious, but not overbearing, it got decent gas mileage for an SUV, and it was comparable in price to the Sonata. I was ecstatic that the prospect of buying an SUV was in our reach (well lease with option to buy.) We are still interested in looking around for other options, but getting our feet wet and knowing our options is very exciting

Here's my problem.....car salesman are just plain PUSHY! They ruin the experience. We told each salesman we spoke with that we were not interested in buying at the moment, just weighing our options. And since then we have had emails, phone calls, and just plain annoyances about getting cars appraised. UGH! If they continue to push like this, they will lose the sale to Cars Direct. Anyways, I was wondering if any of my blog friends had any good recommendations for cars. Preferably with the above specifications. Let me know what's good and whats bad! We need more things to go look at!