Ah the joys of vacationing! A long drive with a great reward at the end. Relaxation. No work. No school. No Worries. There is a hot tub in room and food has no calories for the three day weekend. I think everyone deserves one of those every now and then.
Unless of course you fail to google where exactly it is you are going and you take your car with the dying clutch into the mountains. Who has ever had their mechanic use the words 'it exploded' on you before? Ya those aren't pleasant. Then again neither was being within sight of the hotel when the car lurches and thunks at you before refusing to move.
However there was a bright side. We lost a day of vacation but in exchange we got a reliable car. The man and I have been car shopping on and off for months now anticipating the approaching demise but we always put off buying. Who needs another bill when we were getting along just fine as is. However this did not stop us from investigating.
The first car we really thought we wanted was the Toyota Yaris. Cute little hybrid I had been in love with for the better part of two years. However the second we got in for a test drive we realized a problem. When you got a man upwards of six foot and all leg, you don't want a Yaris. For my little 5'2" sister the car was perfect. For me and the man we were feeling cramped. We still drove it around and gave it the thought but when the first one to pop into your head is cramped, it doesn't stay near the top of the list and the engine didn't have quite the get up and go we wanted because it was a hybrid.
The next car we mozied on over to was the Honda Civic. A lot roomier than the Yaris had been it was off to a good start and honestly it won our hearts with the cool little toys we could play with. For example my all time favorite, the back lit dash changed from blue to green depending on how fuel efficient you were being. Granted it made me play with the colour when driving but I loved it. We probably would have bought that car on the spot if the salesman hadn't been so rude to me. So when my man asked did I want to keep it I looked and said I refuse to buy from that man. So we postponed.
Fast forward. We have an exploded clutch and no desire to fix it. Well recently I read an article comparing some cars and I liked how the Chevy Cruze sounded so we went on a test drive. First thing we notice when we get in is that if the seat is all the way back, it's too far for my man. Leg room was amazing. The ride wasn't as smooth as the Yaris has been however it had a lot more toys than the Yaris and a lot more trunk space. It wasn't as tech savy as the Honda Civic but the gas mileage was better and the Cruze was several thousand dollars cheaper. They had it in a manly enough color and we decided we wanted to keep it.
Well in selling the broken car I did find something out. I had to make a round trip seven hour drive in the new Cruze and turns out it has everything except cruise control. The car is a better cell phone than my actual cell phone it came with Sirus radio and OnStar til the end of the year. I can plug in my iPod to it or watch how many MPG I am getting at any point but no one thought I might want cruise control.
Now it's not a big deal I am assuming it's because our car also switches between an automatic and a manual and so we sacrificed the ability to ignore the gas pedal once we hit a good speed. We've had the car for about a week now and I really like it. When you first drive it, the car does shift a little rough but that cleared up around 300 miles for us like the dealer said it would. (It's got a computer that tracks your driving habits. Hence rough shifting til it gets to know you.)
Anyway. That's my half a cent on three different cars. If you have the money you also want to look into a Ford Focus. That is a nice car too but we wanted something on the slim that came with a warranty but like with any car give it a go and see what feels right for you.
hoping for no more car adventures,
Corset signing off.
PS: If you have any specific questions about any of the cars that you feel the dealer or google can't answer just drop me a comment and I'll get back to you.
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