CrazedPhotoMom

May She Rest In Peace

We had to say goodbye to a very close companion today...our beloved 2002 Mercury Mountaineer. Joe and I both loved that thing from the day we bought it more than 4 years ago. That car has taken us SO many places and has really been worked hard. It's made 2 trips to Michigan and back, 8 bazillion trips to the grocery store, brought two teeny tiny babies home almost 4 years ago, 20 bazillion trips to Joe's workplace...just to name a few.

But over the last few months, the poor sap was more than nickel and diming us. We've (read JOE) been researching all the different cars in our price range and finally decided to take a look at a Nissan. We rose at the buttcrack of dawn this morning (not that rising so early is unusual for us thanks to the children) and got everyone dressed and headed out the door. We arrived at the Nissan dealership at 8:30 and immediately had a salesman greet us. He was VERY nice and since we knew what we were looking for, he pointed us in the right direction. When Joe looked online last night, it said the dealership only had ONE lone car in the model we wanted. When we mentioned that to us, the salesman said that they had 2 more delivered yesterday. Why is that even important, you ask? Because the one that was listed online was black...and neither Joe or I are fans of black vehicles (no offense to all you black car owners - just not our taste). The 2 cars that were delivered yesterday were this BEAUTIFUL bright blue (and for any of you that know us IRL, you know that we once owned a Pontiac Sunfire in a brillant blue). We gave the salesguy a rundown on specifics as far as the price we wanted and whatnot and without wasting any time, he got to work.

Now, when we were walking in to get the ball rolling, we'd joked that we had to leave NO LATER than 2:30 because Joe had class tonight and we had to go home first because the LAST thing I wanted to do was sit through a 4 hour class with 3 kids past bedtime. :P The salesman made a joke like "well, I'd hope it wouldn't take that long!" and we told him of when we bought the Mountaineer it ended up taking 6 hours for the whole process (and at the time Nate was just a baby). He said that was ridiculous and that we'd have no problem getting out of there with plenty of time to spare. I guess his definition of "plenty of time" is WAY different than mine. We got there at exactly 8:30am. We pulled out of the dealership at 2pm, after a 30 minute fight with a seatbelt extender (for Nate's booster seat) which stated right ON IT that it was made for the front seats ONLY. (Apparently neither Joe or the salesman bothered to read it before trying it and when Joe told him it didn't fit, the salesman took it and jammed it into the buckle. He jammed it so badly that they had to replace the entire buckle, which btw requires the back seat to be partially removed...NOT cool when Lexi and Maddie were ALREADY sound asleep in their carseats). And it didn't matter anyway because all 3 carseats would NOT fit...so it was off to Target to get a couple of new ones!!

Anyway...we did finally get everything all situated and all is well. We are now proud new owners of a Nissan Versa. It feels SO odd being in a car after having SUVs for so long. I feel like we're in a roller skate!! BUT - the thing is AWESOME and get this, we're going to be saving more than $100 a month in gas!!! Can I get a big ol' WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!?! The salesman told us that most people that have the Versa get roughly 40mpg!! That's a heck of a long way from the Mountaineer's 18mpg!! Soooooooo, without further ado....photos of our new Versa!!

And for those of you who haven't recently purchased a new car, take a look at the KEY! Uh, there isn't one (ok, not really). Seriously, as soon as you get close to the car, it automatically unlocks the doors for you. When you get inside, you don't insert a key - there's what looks like a typical ignition but no key - just turn it and it starts up!! SUPER cool and high tech - just what Joey likes!
And JUST IN CASE you ever do need a key, they slip one in the back - locks right into the remote!