Saturday, May 21, 2011

Errand day

My husband has been in desperate need of new clothes. He also needed a pair of steel toed shoes to use while he is working. He's leaving on Wednesday and I was nervous that we weren't going to be able to get his shirts before he left. Saturday, being a busy shopping day, I was just sure he wouldn't go to the men's store to buy some clothes.

Low and behold he was surprisingly agreeable!

He needed a whole new wardrobe, but I managed to get him to buy 10 lovely shirts that were large enough to cover his belly.  His mother is going to be so happy to see him next week and not pull down his shirt when she says hi!

Then we got him a pair of shoes for working.  His precious toes will be spared from falling Monkey Bars when he's installing them.

Then, since we weren't ready to have lunch quite yet, my husband asked me if I would mind looking at a few more cars.  We looked at the 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe - in case we wanted to just trade my 2005 Santa Fe for a new one.  We looked at a really cute Hyundai Elantra Touring.




We didn't drive this car, but I was completely smitten!  I like the look, the feel, the dashboard, the front seats, the back seats, the storage, everything but how low to the ground it was.  I'm so used to riding up high in my SUV.  This car was absolutely on the very short list.  I liked this a lot.

Now, at this point in our car hunt, we had maybe changed the objective.  Last week we were thinking that we wanted to trade in my 94,000 mile Santa Fe and get a little smaller SUV that got better gas mileage than my current car.   We paid cash for the Santa Fe when we bought it, so I was a little nervous giving up a car that cost us only insurance, gas and maintenance for a car that was going to have to be financed.    Then my husband mentioned that maybe what we should do is get an even smaller car, not an SUV class car and keep mine.  He traded in his car and truck for a truck earlier in the year and driving his giant truck (14mpg) everywhere was getting to be expensive. 

The Elantra Touring car was a really good car for our third car, but we both thought we could probably find something a little less expensive.


Next stop, Coggin Toyota Scion.


I had read that the Toyota RAV-4 was one of the smaller SUV types and that might be a good choice if we wanted to trade in the Santa Fe.  After taking a test drive, it just didn't feel right for us.  I can't describe it, but it was totally wrong for us.  I did like the side opening back though.  That was very cool.


Then we spotted this blue Scion xD.

Let me just say - this was the first vehicle that was in a color that I wanted!

Not Grey
Not Silver
Not Black
Not Red
Not White

Blue!!!
It's Blue!!!



We checked the price and the sticker was under 20K.  We turned on the A/C and stood outside chatting while the boiling heat inside the car cooled off to a reasonable melting temperature before we got in.  My husband drove it and I fiddled with all of the storage places, worked all of the pockets, put my water bottle in all of the cup holders.  After we stopped I sat in the front seat, the back seat and the driver seat. I adjusted the mirrors, played with the radio and turned on the dome lights.

The car had been on their car lot since Jan of 2010.  It was well over a year old.  It had 3500 miles on it and a pretty big ding and scratch on the back bumper.  They offered us a pretty great price and after some more haggling, we got it for an even better price.  They were more than willing to get a 2010 off their lot.

We now have another car payment, but I honestly think that we will save a lot of money on gas if we drive this car on our road trips and around town.

Rarely do I drive cars that have been purchased expressly for Tom.  Rarely do I ride in Tom's cars.  They just aren't comfortable to me.  I think this car is going to completely different.  I think it's going to be our car and I'm excited.

I also got to keep my Santa Fe.


If anything should ever happen, I have a completely paid off car.

That's what my husband and I can do in a day in Jacksonville, Fl.  Usually we don't shop that much - today was a very expensive day!! 

Hope you enjoyed Sunday in my City
For more city tours, please head on over to Unknown Mami.

Unknown Mami


Hope you have a great weekend!!
Kristin


Our sales person at Coggin Toyota Scion was really fabulous.
His name is William Wilson.
10564 Philips Hwy, Jacksonville, FL 32256
(877) 361-0861

10 comments:

Cyndy Bush said...

I like it! Pretty color. I hope you ended up liking it as much as you expect to! =)

Tara R. said...

Your new car is beautiful. That's a great shade of blue. Enjoy!

Keetha Broyles said...

Did you tell us somewhere what kind of gas mileage your new Scion gets?? Did I just miss seeing it somehow??

I really like it - - - when we decide to trade in my car, I want it to be for better gas mileage, but I DON'T want to give up the SUV features. This looks like a possibility!

Ann in the UP said...

Great deal on the car, and it looks like a beauty. My Camry has 176,000 miles on it and runs like a champ--and our newer car has almost that many miles on it. We use the "new" one for long journeys. Mine is cleaner though.

I just read your post about finding the cell phone in the rest area. Good detective work! Very suspenseful! LOL

Unknown said...

Congratulations on your new car. I know what you mean about payments...I wish I could pay off both of our cars.

Laughed so hard about his Mom having to pull down his shirt : ) Too funny!

Amy DM said...

That blue is a very nice color.

Bill Lisleman said...

Ok I have not shopped for a car in a number of years. Is it really that hard to find a blue car? One of our (now daughter's car) is green. I like shades of silver. I can still remember my dad's orange truck but have no idea why he went with orange but he was color blind. I'm not.

Debby@Just Breathe said...

Congratulations! How exciting.
Enjoy!

carol anne said...

Congrats on the new car. Love the color.

Claudya Martinez said...

Wow! When you shop, you shop! Congratulations! It seems like it is going to be a great car for the 2 of you.