It's KITT, only better because the Hoff isn't involved

A short time ago, I turned 40. No mid life crisis appeared, no hiding under the covers. I'm happy to see what my 40's bring...namely watching the kids grow up.


And now that they are able to climb into and out of vehicles unassisted, I started fantasizing about a vehicle with better gas mileage. I love my van, but it was starting to have a lot of things go wrong pretty early on for a Honda. But I'm not too surprised because the previous owners did not take care of it at all. And for me to say that -- well, it was pretty bad if I could tell.


One night a few weeks ago, R and I drove by the Honda dealership to look at whatever used cars they had on the lot. I'm not a fan of brand new cars. I think if you can choose carefully and wisely, that you can save a ton of money and end up with a great vehicle. Of all the cars I've had over the years, and that list is lengthy, my two favorites were my 92 Nissan Maxima and my 03 Honda Accord.


But back to car window shopping - we were curious about a CRV. We mainly liked it because it was smaller and more gas efficient than the van, but gave us more room than a sedan. Imagine our surprise when the new CRV's were only a few thousand more than the used ones. Hmmm...


Then I found out that our credit union here was offering a great rate on financing on Black Friday. Double hmmmmm.


So R and I went to test drive a CRV. It was nice. It was smaller than I thought, and had the feel of the van inside, only it drove better. Way better. Then the salesman mentioned they had one 2010 Accord left on the lot. And like an idiot, I drove that too.


Can you fall in love with a car? I say yes, because I sure did. I hadn't wanted a black car because I'm pretty sure I will at least partially spontaneously combust in the summer. What color was the Accord? Black with black interior, of course.

It also had a GPS. After all the s**t I've talked about with the GPS in the van - and rightfully so, that thing sucked - this car had a GPS. It's sweetly mounted in the dash, though. So I guess it should count for something that you are at least looking towards the road if you are following the Accord GPS versus down and away from the road with the van GPS.

Since it was a 2010, the price had been reduced $5k already, which priced it the same as a CRV and financing was being offered at 0.9%. Best interest rate available for the CRV? 2.9%

So even though we had just gone in for a test drive, we ended up trading in the van for the Accord.

It's almost been a week, and here's the awesome thing. This car? You can freaking TALK to it. My dinky ass cheapo phone has bluetooth, which I synced up with the Accord and now I can place a call by pushing a button, saying "dial" and saying the nickname or the number. The car even confirms it before dialing. With incoming calls, the number shows up and I can answer it with the push of the button. All this and 30 mpg highway. Sa-weet. The kids can talk to R or Grammy or Papa from the backseat without having to hand them the phone. So S's quest to actually dial Kai Lan so she can say Ne hao! has been temporarily thwarted. heehee!

The GPS also works on voice command, but I haven't really played with it yet. I'm still in a GPS snit and I'm not ready to deal with it. Plus I haven't needed it.

And this morning, when I was taking the kids to school? They were bickering and I said, "Let's rock out!" and cranked up the volume. They STOPPED fighting and rocked out with me.

Tell me, go ahead and just try to tell me, that this car does not have magic powers. I will not believe you.

I can get the groceries out of the trunk without having to leave the garage door open, which will come in awfully handy next week when the high is going to be in the 20's.

Magic!

But - and I mean this in complete and total seriousness - if the Hoff shows up in or near this car? Magic or not, it's dead to me.

Oh, and if you hear about some sort of super crime fighting going on the metro St Louis area? It totally isn't me.