Auto Update

I am still loving my new CR-V.  It gets fantastic gas mileage (for an SUV).  I'm getting 27mpg combined city and highway.  And my drive is about half and half.  It's almost as good as what my car was getting, so I'm really happy with it!  

I have someone interested in buying Sam (my Grand Am).  I wasn't going to sell her, but I feel kind of bad just having her sit in the garage without being used.  However, the thought of selling her makes me tear up a bit.  She's been a good car to be for a lot of years.  I know.  I am irrationally attached to my car.  I can't help it.  I'm sure that with time, I will be irrationally attached to Lucius (my new CR-V) as well.  

In other auto news, exactly what I thought would happen has happened.  I knew that when I bought my new car, Philip would start wanting a new one.  You see, Philip does not get nearly as attached to vehicles as I do (like a normal person!).  He just likes having new vehicles.  ;)

Sure enough, about a week after we bought Lucius, we got a letter in the mail from Planet Honda basically begging us to sell them Philip's Honda Civic SI.  Philip was interested in trading it in on a new Honda Pilot but because his car was in an accident where the airbags went off, they cannot offer us as much as we'd like for it.  

So, we are waiting until later this year when the 2012s arrive.  Then we will have paid a little more on the Civic and we will hopefully be able to get a good deal on the 2011s.  :)  

It doesn't stop there though.  Philip is worried about losing his "race car."  He loves how sporty his car is.  A Honda Pilot is a large SUV and will not be nearly as peppy.  So, we will be buying a motorcycle next spring/summer to feed his need for sportiness.  

This way, we can have the best of both worlds.  He can have a large family vehicle (even though the kids are still several years away -- it still fits the dogs really well!) and have something sporty to drive when the urge strikes.  The motorcycle will also be nice for gas mileage in the summertime!  

So there you have it.  Lots of auto news in our household.  It's pretty exciting stuff!

Forgot something again...

I forgot something great!  The CR-V is supposed to get 21 city MPG and 27 highway MPG.  I've done a mix of city and highway driving in my first 300 miles (almost -- we did a ton of driving in it over the weekend!) along with a bunch of really stepping on it to see what it can do.  I am currently at an average of 27.9 MPG.

It's amazing!  That's even including sitting in concert traffic on Friday night!  It's doing a fantastic job with the MPG!  It's just slightly less than what my car got (roughly 28-29 MPG -- combined city and highway).  That's far more than I expected from an SUV, so I'm really excited!  

The Stats

I'm still fascinated by my car, so it's probably going to fill up a few more blog posts until the newness wears off.  ;)  Bear with me here, people.  It's my first new car!

As I told you before, it's a Honda CR-V SE.  It's a 4 cylinder, 5 speed automatic.  It has 17" alloy wheels and a Drive-by-Wire Throttle System.

It's got Real Time 4wd.  That means that it will go into 4WD when it is needed, or anytime a single wheel slips, it is compensated for in "real time" by the computer delivering a signal to cause power to be delivered to the opposite wheel to insure that both wheels are delivering power to the ground. When the "power" is not needed to all of the wheels they run free.  I like that because it will kick in on its own and I don't have to do anything!

It seats five with 35.7 cubic feet of storage space in the back.  If the rear seats are folded up, there are 72.9 cubic feet of storage space.  And there is so much head room!  I tried to tap the ceiling on Friday night because I saw a headlight out and it seemed like my hand went up forever before reaching the top!  It really threw me off!  

It has rear privacy glass and folding power side mirrors (to fit in smaller spaces).  It's got a ton of different airbags (let's hope I never need them!) and safety features.  It has three power adapters (one in the front, one in the center console, and one in the rear) and an auxiliary input jack for my iPod (as well as a 6 CD changer).  It has 8 drink holders and steering wheel mounted cruise and radio controls.  

One of my favorite things in the car are the seats.  They are comfortable, but more than that, the rear seats are adjustable.  They can be adjusted forward to leave more room in the back.  But, they can also be tilted back so that people can lean backwards and relax, just like the front seats!  They also fold up in crazy ways to leave tons of room in the back.  :)

One of the best things about the Hondas is the Maintenance Minder system.  It tells me what my oil life is along with tons of other maintenance related things so I know exactly when my car needs to be taken in (and I get free oil changes for life!).  

And, I freakin' love that it tells me what my MPG is along with how many miles I have left on a tank of gas.  It is AMAZING!  

However, the things that I love most about this car: the gas gauge works, it has remote entry,  and it has working air conditioning!  Those are all things that I longed for while driving Sam.  And, now I have them!  I feel so spoiled.  ;)  I am really loving my Lucius.  

I almost forgot!

I'm sure that you must've noticed that my beautiful new Lucius is Yankee blue.  Well, he wouldn't be complete without this:

Now all he needs is my "My Golden Retriever is smarter than your honor student!" sticker, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere yet.  I'm sure I'll find it soon, though.  ;)

The Decision: We Are a Honda Family!

After a few minutes of discussion, it was decided: we would be buying this vehicle.  So, we put our game faces on and stepped inside.  I filled out the credit application and we got the show on the road.  

The salesman went back to the finance department and did his thing.  He brought back an offer.  This is where I thought that Philip would be helpful.  After all, he has been through this process several times since he's bought several cars.  I thought that he would be the master negotiator.  Not so.  He was absolutely ZERO help.  Ha!  I had to do all of the negotiating.  

I haggled some and he went back to finance.  He came back with a counteroffer.  I haggled some more.  He went back to finance.  In the end, we ended up getting a great price.  We got it down to the price we were willing to pay per month for the car, but it also included a lifetime service plan and the 8 year/120,000 mile extended warranty for the car.  I get free tire rotations, oil changes, car washes, etc., for life!  Yay!  :)  

So, here he is:

And there you have it.  My beautiful new car.  His name is Lucius.  :)  And I love him already.  Ha!