It is strange having my family home for a little bit. It is just temporary, though, just one week then they will be gone for a week. These last two months are definitely the most disruptive of our lives.
I went to the office today. At lunch time was my Medifast check in. I’m not doing well but I am making progress. Really slow progress. Working off the weight that I accumulated during our time in Europe. It took so little time to put on but takes so long to take back off. In reality I probably put on a decent percentage of the weight that I gained while in New York and while traveling and not actually while on vacation in Europe where we were exercising non-stop.
Dominica and I talked today and decided that it was time to start thinking about getting a new car. The Mazda PR5 just needs way too much work, nearly $900, to drive it safely and at that point it will still have no working air conditioning and tons more repairs will just be a year away. The fuel efficiency just isn’t there anymore between brake issues and the leaking gas tank. We could easily drop $2,000 on it to get it really into shape again. It just is not worth that much, which is sad as the engine runs so well.
So we decided that tonight we were going to go test drive some small, fuel efficient and cost effective new American cars – namely Chevys and Fords.
We started going up to the Chevy dealer, as it was on the way, and test driving the 2012 Chevy Sonic. It was a really nice little car and we were really impressed with it. Fun to drive and great space inside. Would work well for us. We wanted to drive a Chevy Spark too but they have not yet released so no one can see one first hand. The Spark and the Sonic are very similar but the Spark is a little smaller, cheaper and less sporty. We were quite impressed with the Sonic and assume that this is probably the car that we will want. The price, performance, comfort and efficiency are pretty hard to beat.
From the Chevy dealer we drove up north towards Denton where we stopped at the Ford dealer and test drove the Fiesta. The Ford proved to not drive as well, cost quite a bit more and was so small that instead of being large and spacious like the Sonic it was actually cramped and uncomfortable. And, quite frankly, the Ford Fiesta is embarrassingly ugly whereas the Sonic is, well, silly but in an more interesting way. We didn’t even hang around for a discussion, Ford just isn’t making a car that makes sense for us at any price point, let alone one so much higher than a Chevy that we already liked.
On the way home we stopped by at Denny’s out on 35E for dinner. They have a new menu with fish tacos on it now that we really like. And we have always loved their salads.
So we are pretty serious about the Chevy Sonic now that we have driven it. They are looking to see if they can find us a charcoal grey Sonic Turbo five speed with the brick tinted interior which is super sharp. I am excited. I really do need a new car and the Mazda will never be safe to use as a second car for taking the girls anywhere. We need the ability to take the girls in our second vehicle.
We need to buy something this week because if we don’t we are stuck with logistics problems with the trip next week, which starts on Saturday. So, if at all possible, we are hoping to have a new car by Friday. That is going to be tough, though.