It's a New Car!!!

Well, it's not exactly new, but thanks to NBCs clever slogan "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you" I can say, that I have a new 2008 Honda Pilot.



Allison and I knew we wanted to start a family sooner than later, so right after our wedding we started looking at SUVs. I mean right after our wedding. I think we got the Honda CR-V the weekend after we returned from our Honeymoon.

It was a good car. It treated us well. It was big enough for Allison, Molly and I. And probably big enough for Allison, Ben, Molly and I, but not our stuff. Shopping was an adventure with the stroller in the trunk. Packing the trunk after a trip to BJ's or Costco was like a game of Tetris. Rotate and move each item to make if fit perfectly into place.

Road Trips since we added Ben were rough. We probably could have packed lighter, but just the essentials filled us up pretty quickly. A stroller, pack-n-play, 2 suitcases. The trunk is full. It's now time to get creative.

It's funny, we bought the CR-V because we thought it would give us plenty of room when we eventually had kids. We even thought, it would be plenty big for one kid and it would maybe be big enough to handle a second kid. LOL Sadly that was not the case.

Anyway, on to bigger and better. The Honda Pilot is bigger than the CR-V. It has 3rd row seating and tons of trunk space. The stroller fits longways in the back leaving the whole other side for storage. We went grocery shopping today and 12 bags of groceries fit with no problems. There was almost too much room and the bags were jostling around. Oh and yeah, 12 bags of groceries? I swear I have no idea where all that food goes. I feel like I never eat and there is never anything to eat in the house, but that's a post for another day. The thing that is different about the Pilot is that it's the first used car either of us has purchased since 2000. So Hopefully it's onto bigger and better.

We went to Headquarter Honda and we had a good experience. Keith and Chris helped us. They were both good guys. Jeff was the sales manager that helped us. He has a foreign accent, but he was a good guy too. They are the Greenest (environment friendly) dealer around. Is that why we went there? No. W went there because it's about 30 miles closer than the next Honda dealership, but it's pretty cool that they are green. Wish us luck with the "new" Pilot.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. The upholstery had a few stains. We complained and said unless they got the stains out, we couldn't but they car. They did one better than remove the stains. They are installing leather for us. And, we currently have free XM Radio. It will remain free until the previous owner cancels their subscription. Remember that episode of Friends where Chandler and Joey got free porn? It's a lot like that. Until it dies, XM Radio is staying on.










Now lets have a history lesson. Here are all the cars we've had and a little story.
This is the first time we've bought used since our first cars. My first car was an 1984 Mercury
Capri. I got it in 1993. I think we paid $1200 for it. It lasted a few years, but not before I put 3 or 4 times what I paid for it initially in upgrades and repairs into it. (Mostly repairs)

My next used car was a 1994 Chevy Cavalier. I think I got it in 96 or 97. It was a very good car, but I got a new job, making more money and I decided I wanted to get a new car. I got a brand new 2000 Oldsmobile Alero. I loved that car. It was a dream on wheels. ;)

After that I was introduced to Honda. I had to pay off some debt, so by trading in the Alero for a Civic, I was able to save about $110 a month. I got a 2003 Honda Civic 4 door. That struggled to make the drive down to FL and when it got here, it could not handle having the AC running 24x7 so I had to turn that in.

I got a 2006 Honda Accord. Coming out of the Honda Civic, this thing was a beast! I pressed the gas, it moved. It was not an Alero, but it got me from point A to point B quickly and with air conditioning.

That was a lease and it was going to run out in October, Ben was due in September, so we didn't want to be looking at cars with a newborn or a 9 month pregnant woman. In February I got a 2009 Honda Civic. This one was redone and I really like it a lot. I plan to drive this into the ground and make it last 10 years. wish me luck.

I can't go too much into details on Allison's cars, but here they are. Allison's first car was a 1991 Ford Probe. She got it in 1998 (I think) Her first new car came in 2000. It was a 1999 Chevy Tracker. It was purple with a white soft top, but she liked to call it eggplant.

For one reason or another, she got rid of Suzy and got a 2001, 2 door Fire Engine Red Honda Civic. After that she got a 2005 Infinity G35. It was the 4 door, but it was still a beast. It had some balls on it. It was hard to drive under 60 and you can easily drive 86MPH on Disney property and get pulled over on the way to your Disney Wedding Consultation appointment. I'm not saying this happened, but I'm saying it could very easily happen.

That gas guzzler left to make room for the 2007 Honda CR-V and 45,000 miles later we now have a 2008 Honda Pilot, which we also plan on driving into the ground. We'd like to have a year where we have no car payments. If you think about how much money has been spent on car payments in the last 10 years it's disgusting, but we always had reliable vehicles and were never left the lurch.

Here are the pix. See if you can match them up and leave some comments on them.
My Cars
1) 1984 Mercury Capri
2) 1994 Chevy Cavalier
3) 2000 Oldsmobile Alero
4) 2003 Honda Civic
5) 2006 Honda Accord
6) 2009 Honda Civic


Allison's Cars
1) 1991 Ford Probe
2) 1999 Chevy Tracker
3) 2001 Honda Civic
4) 2005 Infinity G35
5) 2007 Honda CR-V
6) 2008 Honda Pilot