It's a Brand New Car!!

Yep! It was time.... time to say good bye to the Saaby Saab that I had for the last 9 years.  It was such a fun car!  Well worth the 9k I paid for it, plus I never had to drop major $$ on it, it was a solid, reliable car.  If only I had taken care of it aesthetically, it still may have been worth some money.  With only 84K miles and a strong engine this could be a great car for years to come.  The list of non-working items/problems just went on and on.  I ignored them as long as I could, but now with Mateo, I actually cared.  The leaky top and broken seat levers [which made it hard to get to the back seat] were the main issues, and to be able to hand it over to a dealer made the most sense.  I would hate to list all these problems on a Craigslist ad and expect to get money. 

Ernesto had been searching/researching suv's online for months.  Initially, we thought we might get a Honda CR-V or something of similar size, but with a little forward thinking (ha!) we thought it would be practical (it even sounds funny in saying it..us? practical? ha!) to buy a car that has the 3rd row seating as an option.
My number one choice was the Volvo X90 and Ernesto's was the VW Touraug but after some reviews (online and from friends) we determined that the maintenance would be too much on these.


Ernesto then fell in love with the Lexus GX 470, and I though a Honda Pilot would be a good option.  We went to a dealer yesterday and I test drove both cars (and the Volvo). 
The Lexus won hands down...what a ride!
I am better at bargaining than Ernesto, so I did all the talking.  I got the sales guy to come down almost 4K including $2500 for my Saab.  (boy, did they get screwed on that one:)

Did you think of Bob Barker when you read the title?? "It's a brand new car!" 
Well, here is our brand new [to us] car the Lexus GX 470.
It's a 2004 and I still feel like it is too nice for me.  (I made Ernesto promise to take care of it because we already know my track record with this.)  Leather, 4WD, navigation, bluetooth, 3rd row, heated seats, sunroof.  Toyota makes Lexus so we know these cars don't die!  Hopefully we can have a another kid or two to fill it up....plus have room for the grandparents:)

As we drove off the car lot, it started to rain pour and we laughed.  "Boy, isn't it nice to be dry?"