Mom Car?

Okay so a little while after we found out we were having a mini Hellman we started talking about whether or not we would need to get a different car.  My current car is only two doors and it's a manual.  Two strikes against it in the mom car category.  However it's awesome.  And I'd be lying if I said I was having an easy time imaging myself giving it up for a spacious SUV (not to mention a minivan, goodness the thought of that made me want to cry or at least run away to Europe for awhile where I could happily drive a small car in peace).  I think also that thinking about having an SUV made me feel like I was officially giving up my carefreeness (I know, not a word) and resigning myself to true adulthood. Maybe that only makes sense to me, but anyway I felt like I was constantly feeling like I was willingly giving away my freedom ever time I even thought about test driving an SUV.  Okay ridiculous back story done! 

 

 

So we slowly started test driving when we felt like it, and we spent some nights browsing the internet and of course I asked everyone I talked to what they thought I should get.  I got everything from a porsche cayenne (umm I'm looking for something that cost less than my house thank you very much) to a honda accord (okay these are fine but I kind of like cars that are fun to drive not just reliable, again not ready to be a grownup yet) to a dodge caravan with a BMW logo stuck on the front (thank you engineers I work with that do actually have a sense of humor).

In response to that we test drove none of those of course.  Warning: before you keep reading you're forewarned I might bash your favorite car.  I figure differing opinions are why Honda isn't the only car company in the world :).  We did test drive a jeep patriot which we pretty much hated.  I'm sorry but being able to reach 45 before hitting the end of the highway ramp is kind of important to me.  Next it was the grand cherokee, which the sales guy assured us would be more powerful.  Yes more powerful and also HUGE.  No thanks.  Pause for christmas vacation and some cold dark nights we didn't want to venture out on to test drive cars when we couldn't feel our fingers.  Then it was on to the VW dealership, which was really more by chance.  We'd been scouting around online and found this car that would be AMAZING to own.  The Golf R.  Yes the R stands for racing.  We went to get my car serviced and low and behold they had jsut gotten one on the lot that morning complete with red paint and four doors!  Fast forward a day or two to when we actually had time to go back to check it out - it was sweet.  A six speed manual that was ridiculously fast.  Also expensive, as expensive as some smaller SUV's Spencer had been looking at sneakily in his spare time while I freaked out about having a mom car.  So we told the sales guy we'd think about it and went on our way.  For the record he did say he thought a car seat would fit in the back, although he said we were the first people to ask about that feature!

So Spencer kept researching things online.  I kept having mini freakouts about being a soccer mom.  People at work kept telling me you are really going to want an SUV, you're not going to want to be bending down all the time, hitting your head to get baby Noah out of the back seat, plus you're not going to want to have no leg room for whoever gets stuck sitting in front of baby.  Goodness! Who know there were so many things to consider.  Enter the possibility of the BMW X3.  Sneaky hubby knows I love BMW's.  He also did his research and found their smaller SUV and found that it costs around the same as a new Golf R, with way more room for car seats and all the other stuff you apparently need to have with you at all times when you have a baby!

In a moment of weakness, okay more like a moment of needing a break from spreadsheet analysis at work, I thought okay I'll go online and see what the dealership in town has in stock in the way of X3's.  I found one that said it was a 2011 and suddenly was more intrigued by the thought of not having to pay the new car price tage.  Okay this is getting long winded!  Long story shortish, I emailed the dealership and a sales guy I had met before when my friend at work was buying a BMW remembered me and emailed me back lickety split saying the car had just come on the lot and had low mileage and we should come drive it!  So Saturday afternoon we headed over to check it out and go figure it was fully loaded, complete with a giant moon roof, turbo charged engine, paddle shifters, sport mode, back up camera, built in window shades in the back to keep the sun out of baby's (or grandma's) eyes and oh yeah heated seats in the front and back!!  And did I mention it was fast?  Like really fast? Put it in sport mode and pretty soon you are flying past everyone else on the highway before you even realize you are going 20 over, but wait!  It also projects your speed onto the front windshield so you don't have to even look down to know you are in danger of a speeding ticket, perfect!  But being the rule follower I am, plus the fact that it was still a big price tag in comparison to my little rabbit, we told the sales guy we needed to think on it for the weekend and take the chance that the three other people who had already test driven it that day wouldn't decide on it faster than us.  We talked about it.  Slept on it.  Talked about it some more.  I decided I could live with a super sporty, super fast BMW SUV.  Spencer convinced me we should get a nice car so we weren't always wishing we could drive his car everywhere.  Plus, it was like the best of both worlds combined, letting me still be carefree while also having room for a baby and a pack n play and a stroller and a baby bag and umm a case of beer haha.

Ta da!!! My new mom car.  I love it.

 

I will love it even more when I've figured out how to park it without being completely paranoid about how big it is.

Spencer is a little jealous that my car is now nicer than his.  We now have the ying and yang of BMW's as David affectionately calls our black and white vehicles.  I feel a bit like a tool, but as a coworker said, a fast, stylish tool.  Mission accomplished ;).