New Car!!!

My garage is pretty tiny. The Beetle BARELY fit, but there is so much room now! P.S. All that stuff piled in front of the car is NOT our stuff. It belongs to the owner of the condo  we're renting. She gives us  break on rent for allowing her to store her things in the garage. :)

Yes, this will do nicely. :)

I'm checking out all the fun interior accessories and gadgets.

Yup, this is the one.

Fancy Schmancy.

It's so tiny!!!! I love it!

Here I am figuring out how all the lights and esoteric dials work. Haha. 

I've had my Volkswagen Beetle for 13 years! It was my first car and has survived several accidents and kept myself and Kyle safe through each one (none of which were ever me or Kyle's fault!) and it has kept chugging along despite all the computer glitches and errors that come with the German engineering. However, with the passing of my Mom's husband and my desire to make the two-hour-trek to visit her more frequently, plus the newest glitch it developed of dying in the middle of intersections, it was time for me to sell my little black Bubble car.

Despite all the cosmetic blemishes and mechanical issues, I sold it within five hours of putting it up in Craigslist. It was a bit emotional and hectic fielding all the questions and then finally seeing it drive away with a new owner, but man, was it nice to have all that cash in hand, especially knowing it was going towards getting me something newer and more reliable!

I shopped around a lot, did lots of research and was going to buy a used car, but wouldn't ya know it when I got to the dealership to test drive the used model, I ended up liking the shiny, newer models so much more.

After some haggling and playing the Toyota dealership's "games" as Kyle called it, I ended up with a tiny, adorable Scion iQ. It's a bit bigger than a smart car and the engine shifts much smoother, which is why I liked it. It's very quirky and unique and I rarely see them around town, which is another reason I was attracted to it.

I of course wanted a black model, but because the iQ is such a tough little car to get a hold of in my area, I had to settle for a white one, which ended up being just fine. The color is called "White Sand Pearl," so I named the car "Pearl." Kyle wants to call her "Eva" (like in "Wall-E"), but I think Pearl is better.

So far, I like the sound system as it's the updated version of the one I had in my Beetle, which I always thought sounded pretty good. I think due to the size of the car, the sound carries better and you don't need speakers or equipment nearly as powerful as in a larger sedan. It's missing some of the bells and whistles my Beetle had such as an alarm system (whomp whomp), leather seats (not a big deal), and butt warmers (super sad to not have those as our winters can get pretty chilly), but so far I am in love with the little Pearl. She's fun to drive and turns on a dime, plus she fits into EVERY parking spot with room to spare. Perfect little city car. Oh yeah - did I mention the gas mileage is pretty stellar??

Until next time!