One down, one more to go

This year should be aptly named “The Year of The Car” for our family.

This year, specifically this summer we needed to get two cars.

The lease on the Tahoe expires in a month.

Jill’s Pontiac Grand Am was dying a slow and painful death.

As far as function and purpose was concerned we need to get one car and an SUV or mini-van. With gas prices anticipated to hit the three dollar mark and predicted to be at 5 dollars by the end of next year we decided to not keep the Tahoe. It costs us about sixty dollars a week to keep the beast going. Don’t get me wrong, the Tahoe is a spectacular vehicle. A true joy to drive and thing of pride and joy for me. For many years I had wanted a Tahoe and for the last six years I’ve had two of them, so in some way I am sated.

Last month brought the swift demise of Jill’s car. Because of the multiple trips that I take to school and work I was the one that got stuck with it. We were trying to save the mileage on the Tahoe. The Grand Am then began to overheat, daily. Then the air conditioner would die as soon as the car over heated. We knew that the car would not last. With the little bit of money that we had for a down payment we headed into the Honda dealership and got a 2005 Pilot. I know, at the moment we have 2 SUVs. As soon as October rolls around we’ll turn the Tahoe back in. Around that time arriving on a boat from England and across the country by truck our new Mini Cooper S should be in.

With a curb weight of 2200 pounds and 160 horses under the hood the Cooper S is quite a vehicle. The fun factor alone is worth the 36 smiles to the gallon. The little rat of a car zips around corners and can pass a semi on the freeway with great ease.

Jill did not want the manual version, she glugged and stalled it too much on the test drive. As a compromise we got the automatic transmission with the tripronic paddle shifters on the steering wheel. The right paddle shifts up, the left shifts down, just like on the formula one cars.

Yes I fit, no it’s not a clown car.

We’ll keep you posted when the new “baby” arrives.