A BRAND NEW CAR!!!! all Price is Right style!

John and I bought my little blue 1998 ford Taurus in June of 2007 and it has been a good little car with some minor fixes from my dad and husband from time to time. We had plans to buy a new car to replace it after we had paid off John's truck in 2015, but Lil' Blue had other plans.

It all started when someone cut me off and I had to slam on my brakes early 2013. Right after I couldn't get my car to drive again and it took some finagling with the gear shift to get it to go. Then I'd have some weird problems every now and then, but nothing that slowed me down too much. Then finally the transmission really started to die in about August and I'd have to turn the car off and back on to get out of first gear if I didn't stop slow enough for the car to change gears like it wanted while stopping.

The Monday I went back to work after we got back from New York my car died in the neighborhood and I had to call John so I could get to work. He then drove the car for the next couple of days and learned that if he shifted the car to reverse and then back into drive after stopping it would go back into gear.
I then drove it this way for a couple more weeks. We then had that major snow storm and my car died at the entrance of the neighborhood. I called John and my dad to have him help us push the car out of the way, but with the snow storm it was taking time for them to come save me. Of course even with my hazards on, cars piled up behind me honking while I tried to get the car to start. After numerous tries, the engine finally turned over and I was able to get the car to a church parking lot and I was able to cancel the 911 call to my dad. After that John drove the car and I took the truck.

Why did we put up with this nonsense for 5 more months? Because we were trying to save up as much as we possibly could for a down payment and prolonging having two car payments. Every week we'd ask each other if we wanted to keep waiting and we kept saying yes.
We had the same conversation last Monday and even though John said he could still put up with the car, I was done. It's not that I don't like driving John's truck, I just hate backing up, parking and changing lanes. I was tired of parking in Timbuktu because of my inability to park and weekends were tough if we both needed to go somewhere at the same time. I felt like we both had suffered long enough and had a good down payment for a new car.

We bought this cute 2012 Ford Escape on the 27th of February.

We got a tremendous deal on the small SUV and I couldn't be more pleased. It has a lot of bells and whistles and compared to Lil' Blue it's the Taj Mahal! The dogs will not be allowed on the seats even though they are leather so it'll be a little squishy in the back if all dogs come with us. But being able to have passengers and not be embarrassed about dog hair and dirt will be a dream come true!
Now I'm always thinking of a reason why I need to go somewhere so I can drive my new car.