cube.

Yeah, it needs punctuation.

As you know, we've been playing mechanic trying to keep Tom's Saturn running. The A/C, the tires, the belt, the alternator. Tom drove it home one day about a month ago, just before we were leaving for bridge day, and it started bucking and stalling and not shifting. He managed to get into a parking spot here before it completely died on him.

I stood staring at it for a while, and had NO IDEA what was wrong with it. Not one clue, though we did eventually whittle it down to "probably the electrical system". But exactly what in the electrical system? The computer? The battery? The damn alternator again? A co-worker found an electrical shop that would diagnose our problem for $50. I found another co-worker who came out and poked around the engine and jumped it to listen to it (as we had earlier) and said that it was the electrical system, but it could be that the electrical system was failing because the computer was failing. All I was seeing was $$$ and I was getting tired of having to budget money in for this car to get repaired. I kept thinking about the bucking that Tom described, and how if it was the alternator or computer, what says that there wasn't a HUGE transmission problem underneath that.

I had been hoping to be a little more liquid when we started thinking about buying a new car. But it was that or start budgeting in more than a car payment a month for car repairs.

The Saturn has served us well; no two ways about that. It drove our butts around for 8 years. And it may and probably will live again as a car for a teen age driver- two co-workers are battling over it, one for a nephew and one for a daughter. Both are hobby mechanics and can take their time over months to figure out how to get it working again.

Meanwhile, we needed a new car. Tom already had one picked out, and it did fit in the budget I was trying to stick to. We tried to go through the Costco Auto Program, but the car was too new for their discounts. We still went to that dealership though, because we figured it was a good bet since they worked with Costco. Please note: We Love Costco.

It only took a test drive and walk around for us to decide that we liked it. Ok, loved it. Tom is not a traditional car person; he bought the Saturn because it only had two doors and people wouldn't want to ride in the back. (Ask my parents. And his.) This was also going to be a non-traditional, non-American car.

Ironically, I was the one who made the salesman pop the hood. Tom was playing inside and I was talking horsepower. How did that happen?

So, the next day, we went to pick up our new car. SUV? Box? Toaster? Whatever.











Oh, this thing is FUN.