We gone and done it

Yes, that's right. We did it. What you ask? We got a new car! Well, actually, I got a new car. I am so excited!

Almost 3 years ago exactly, I bought my first car. I traded in my (fully paid off) 1996 Explorer Sport for a 2006 Volkswagen Jetta. I loved that Jetta, but I drove off the lot with a little bit of buyers remorse. Maybe it was because I went from zero car payment to $25,000 in car payment, or maybe it was because I felt pushed into making a deal. Whichever it was, I have often thought of that Explorer and wished that I had held onto it. Not for lack of love of my Jetta - again, I loved that car. It had great gas mileage (25 city, 30 hwy), and it was much more reliable than the Explorer.

So Jon and I have been talking. We have decided that once we have kids, I should have an SUV. He would just feel much more at ease if I were higher off the ground. Lets face it, in the Jetta, you can see every rock in the pavement because you are so low to the ground. We also decided that we will probably start trying to get pregnant sometime this fall, like October or November. This gives me at least 17 months to pay on the new car as aggressively as I can while still saving as much as I can. This may cut into my addiction to buying stuff, but I can make that small sacrifice.

Now for the new car, drum roll please...

You like? I do. No, I LOVE it!! It is a 2009 Ford Escape, the color is Black Pearl Slate - it looks dark grey, almost navy in the sunlight, and is really sparkly. I kinda wished 3 years ago that I had bought an Escape instead of the Jetta, but now I am soo soooo glad I didn't. The new Escape has a better body style, in my opinion. And, my sister in law has an older one. I don't care about having the same car as other people. One of my co-workers/college friend had the exact same Jetta as me, just in black. So I'm kinda relieved to have a different car than him. Now this way, having a newer style Escape, I have a slightly different looking car from my SIL.

I really do love it. Really really. I have not experienced one ounce of buyer's remorse either - which is very good. We got a good deal on it too. Ford was having Employee pricing and extra incentives for financing through them. So, we basically got almost $4,000 off of the original price of the car. I was slightly upside down in my loan on the Jetta, so the $4,000 became $2,000. An additional $4,000 down payment, and I owe considerably less on the Escape than I did on the Jetta when I first bought it. Exciting times!

My new Escape comes with Sirius Satellite Radio (a must in my opinion since my Jetta had XM radio), leather seats (another must for easy clean up with kids), side steps, roof racks, hidden wet storage in the back, dual power seats, and dual front, side and back airbags (another very important feature). Its also nice to not have to sit "down" into this and have to crawl out of it. I can just slide in and out of it. Another plus since when we do have kids, I won't have to break my back bending over to get the car seat in.

That's our big purchase for the year (I hope). We still have budgeted enough money to get the HVAC system and electrical work done in the basement too. Woohoo!