New

I'm more from the school of buying used cars. It just normally makes good financial sense to buy cars that are a few years old, where the first owner took the hit of the quick depreciation of new cars. I'm also the sort that prefers to drive cars til they are dead, or at least questionable. I just cannot see spending so much money on a vehicle and not getting all you can out of it. I don't have to be trendy and I don't have to have beauty in a car. It just needs to be clean, decently maintainted and generally reliable. I'm not quick to want a newer car just because mine starts to show its age, is what I'm trying to say.

I've actually had two cars catch on fire while I was driving them. One was my granpa's old car - a 1938 Bonneville, and one was my dad's old car, which come to think of it, was also a Pontiac. My poor little 1990 Talon had so many things that were wrong with it, but I loved that car and it started first time every time, even with 177,000 miles on it. John's little 1995 Eagle Summit was in very sad shape by the time it died right before B was born. Out of all our cars we've ever owned only one was purchased brand new - the Jeep Cherokee...until now.

Our Jeep has served us well for 9 years, but lately it had been having troubles. We put $2200 into it last summer, and this summer the computer began conking out. John also said the transmission was slipping. It was going to cost a lot of money to fix it, and John is under consideration for a job about 52 miles from home - one way - so the gas cost would be a huge factor too. Sunday, it left John stranded and that was the last straw. Normally we'd buy a recent model used car, as I said above, but this time there were so many incentives that we bought new.

Now don't fall off your chair - this is to those that know John and his family - we bought a 2009 Toyota Camry LE. I KNOW! I about peed myself too. John will probably drive it more than I will, but if he gets this new job we will likely trade off more than we used to. If he's driving that many miles, we'd want to put some of those on my VUE too, and the gas mileage isn't too terrible on it. The Camry is charcoal gray and has a moon-roof that opens up all the way. I've always wanted one of those. Honestly though, we didn't have much to choose from. The 2009 cars with better gas mileage are slim-pickings. The base models were pretty much all gone. I do like the car though. I hope it lasts us a very, very long time.