Cars

Y'know, I was thinking the other day that life is a highway. And you know what, I'm going to ride it, all night long...
In my NEW car. That's right the one we bought last year: is sold. We drove it about 10,000 miles ourselves and ended up selling it for $1,000 more than we bought it for, so all in all, it worked our really well. The new one is a MUV, a multi-use vechicle that combines the best features of an SUV, a compact, a minivan, and a wagon and the worst features of none of them. It gets great gass mileage, over 30 mpg highway and IT SEATS 6 (y'know, just in case we are blessed with lots of kids and/or friends soon). Our particular model came with a sunroof and nav-system. We broke it in on the trip to Comic-Con and are pleased with our purchase. It's a Mazda5 and we named it "Gem." This is what it looks like:

Here's another shot that shows off the fog lamps:

These are both pictures from online, because it's too hot outside and I'm too lazy to go snap a picture of our actual one, but it's the same color and everything.

I think this makes our family average one car purchase per year. Here's the hit list:

2005 - We inhereted my grandmother's Toyota Corolla and it's still with us going strong. Nicole was going to go on a mission this year so when her car broke down, she bought a 20-year-old Honda for like 500 bucks. It lasted three weeks. Then, after visiting her sister and assisting in the birth of her niece, Nicole inhereted another clunker which she drove back to Connecticut where it died on the lawn when we moved back to Utah. Someone had to eventually call and have it towed away and donated to charity (sorry Mom). [This is the year we got married, so I'm starting the count from here.]

2006 - We didn't buy a car

2007 - We got a ten+ year-old Honda. I think it was a stick shift. It was about 600 bucks and came with an inverter that turns a cigarette lighter into a plug, so that was cool. The car only lasted a month and a half, but we still have the inverter.

2008 - We bought a really cheap scooter. Less than a thousand bucks and it gets nearly 100 mpg. It's a "princess" model from China and often needs repairs, but has still been really worth it, especially cause I can get much better parking spaces with it.

2009 - We bought a Ford Focus wagon (as shown in this post last year). It's been a great car, but it's sold now, with enough profit to make up for the lemons we bought earlier.

2010 - The awesomest car in the universe, the Mazda5