New Wheels

Wow, is it hard to choose a vehicle to drive these days. First there's safety to consider. If you have an accident like we just had (rolled, spun, and skidded the car), safety is a main priority. I felt like I wanted the exact same car (in my case - a VW Jetta wagon) because it kept me and my kids so safe.

Then there's gas mileage. The higher the better for this environmentalist.

I wanted to purchase a used car because when well cared for and well built, cars have a much longer life span than many people take advantage of. It is also much greener to reuse something and extend its usable lifetime.

There is cost to consider as well. Sometimes life would be so much easier without money!

And then the kicker for me -- availability. You see I want to still drive a stick shift (manual transmission) car. There just aren't a lot of them around. And I want a station wagon for carrying bikes, bins, and other stuff.

So a used station wagon with a stick shift, the highest safety ratings, and the highest gas mileage. There are not a lot of choices.

Have I mentioned that I also do not want black interior (living in Maryland black interiors are rather like ovens in the summer) or silver/grey/white exterior?

Yes, that leaves me with precisely zero choices. Not even worrying about the price yet ... So I have to give something up. Stick shift? Hell no. If I have to drive around, I might as well enjoy it and not fall asleep :-) Wagon? nope. I gave up on color. After all, just last week I had a blue car -- and I distinctly remember not wanting blue. I wanted green. But in 2002 when we went to the dealership the green one sold while we were driving there. So blue we got.

Just yesterday I drove home my new car. It is silver. But, it is a 2002 VW Passat station wagon with a stick shift, grey leather interior, great safety ratings, and with the lowest power engine has the best gas mileage I could find in this type of car. She is happy in our garage. I even baked a birthday cake for her yesterday. After all, she was build in Dec 2001 in Germany. It is really her birth month!