We spent last Saturday driving all over creation and test driving just about everything under the sun. I can't give you a blow by blow of everything we looked at, because at some point, it all started to blur together in my mind. I remember liking an orange Subaru Forester, and a Hyundai Sonata. There was a Mustang that nearly won out, too. By evening-time, I was so burned out and frustrated that I was ready to give up and head home in defeat.
The problem was too many choices. And the fact that I want a car that does not exist (at least, not to my knowledge and not in my price range). I want a sporty, sexy vehicle that is convertible for the Spring and Fall, and converts in the push of a button to a rugged winter ride and cool-comfy summer ride. I want to be able to haul my bikes and kayaks around, have lots of room for the family on road trips, and .... get awesome gas mileage.
Lots of vehicles fit most of those parameters, except for the last one. Bottom line, I can either have an economical commuter car, or an SUV. I know there are lots of "crossovers" out there (crossover is the new term for pumped up station wagons), but none of them seemed to fit my personality. I am still in love with Jeep Wranglers. I acknowledge, however, that they are supremely impractical. It takes two people to re-install the hard or soft top, and storms roll through here so quickly that it would likely sustain water damage before I managed to get it covered up. Still love Mustangs, too. But a bike rack would look ridiculous on a 'Stang. And can you imagine tying a kayak to the roof of a Mustang? Um, no.
The Explorer comes closest of all the cars I drove on Saturday to meeting all of those parameters. The gas mileage is the notable exception. Excellent gas mileage and SUV don't seem to belong in the same sentence. However, it does have a sunroof, which was my compromise on the convertible issue. It is rigged up for towing, so we can put our bike rack on the back of it AND throw kayaks onto the roof rack all at the same time! This particular Explorer looks sporty and sexy (so say all the guys I talk to... something about the rims? They look like tires to me, but all the guys think they're cool, even the guy I returned the rental car to noticed them and told me they were cool).
So, there you have it. A new (to us) car. I really hope I don't have to go through that again for a long, LONG time!
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