Hip to be Square

We have survived a hellish week choosing a new car to replace my old Saturn station wagon. Not only have we survived, but we successfully made a purchase. The wagon, with over 110,000 miles on it, was diagnosed with a broken thermostat and a low efficiency catalytic converter. This would cost about $2000 to repair. It seemed a little silly to us to make this repair on such an old car...so we started shopping. Our budget couldn't handle adding a major car payment...did I mention that the wagon was paid off?...so we looked at small, cheap, commuter cars, just big enough to travel the kids to school or me to work.

After an exhaustive and exhausting Internet comparison, we settled on test driving the Kia Soul. I sat in it for all of 2 minutes and realized that the visibility in the rear window was too occluded. I often wonder why car manufacturers today shrink the rear window and frame it so thick that you can barely see out...making every lane change treacherous. Not for me. But...when we were there, I spied the Nissan Cube. What a cool looking car. Its asymmetry is offbeat and the gimmicks (like a round shag carpet on the dashboard) are a bit weird...but I loved it. Secretly so.

We also tried out the Honda Fit. This was the smart choice. It gets fantastic gas mileage, is very sporty, and has the most storage capacity for subcompact cars...and it came in orange. So, we told Orlando at the Honda dealer to find us our car. We told him to find the orange one in the sport model, with the traction control option (which incidentally comes with an unnecessary navigation system). Did you know that this combination is almost impossible to find? Apparently the Honda Fit is in high demand. This created a personal hell for Marcus. When he makes a decision to buy something, he wants to buy it without delay. The searching, the calls back and forth to Orlando, awaiting decisions on dealership trades...it was too much for him. We had to expand our search beyond orange to include red Fits...but this didn't solve our problems. We finally got a lead on a red one, but it would take 3 more weeks until delivery. This just wouldn't do...

We decided to head back to the Nissan dealer and test drive the Cube...just to see if we liked it. The minute I put it in gear and pulled out of the parking lot, I knew it was my car. A Caribbean blue, geometrical marvel...with so much visibility it felt a bit like I was driving a fish bowl. I loved every bit of it...even the shag carpet was growing on me. It had great pick-up and drove so smoothly. I hoped that when Marcus drove it he would like it just as much...and he did! So, we sacrificed a bit on storage space and gas mileage, but traded up on pure panache. Plus, we got the top of the line model with everything from fog lights to 20-color ambient lighting. I am now the proud owner of a Cube and I couldn't be happier. After all, if you've got to jet around town traipsing kids, running errands, and getting back and forth to work, your transportation should make you smile. Mine does!