The SUV and Me

I live in America, the home of free and the SUV. Yes, I am now the very proud owner of a SUV, the Honda CR-V to be exact. This is my very first ever new vehicle. My first car was a boat sized used blue 1979 Cadillac, bought for $950.00 from a friend and co-worker at the time. The price was chosen as it was the amount he was being offered by the car dealer if he were to trade it in on the new truck he picked out. I truly loved this car! I had it about two years and on a trip I was making to NY from RI, in the winter, thru the snow, heading out at about 6:00AM, the heater decided to quit working. I had to be in NY by 8:00am so I had no option but to keep going, heat or no heat….what a trip that was! I have also owned, all bought as used vehicles mind you, a 1986 Eldorado America’s Cup Edition Cadillac, beautiful car that was parked at the used car dealership. It was, as I found out, not for sale as it belonged to the dealer’s wife, needless to say when I left the lot it no longer belonged to anyone but me; as the saying goes, everything is for sale! For a very short few months I owned a new Saturn…this car was so small I thought I was supposed to be driving some clowns around under the BIG TOP at the circus. It had belonged to my ex-mother-in-law who had only owned it about 6 months before she suddenly passed away.

My husband at the time had been involved in an accident with my beautiful white and blue America Edition Eldorado and thought he would be nice and give me the Saturn, okay I am not impressed or happy about this. I promptly began shopping again for another used new car. I found a green 1989 Jaguar sitting on a lot one day, and before the week was over I was driving down the road with my leather heated seats and large silver Jaguar hood ornament staring back at me while I was behind the wheel. After my current husband and I sold that car to move to SC from RI and put some money down on a new home, I drove his white Monte Carlo, then I was given a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP (super charged!) because my sister-in-law passed away one year after she bought the car brand new and paid in full with cash. Now that car was awesome, it was black, not the easiest to keep clean, but it had all the features I could have wanted on a car that was manufactured for 2001. It had 6 way power leather heated seats, auto lights (no more forgetting to turn them off and running the battery down) auto day/night mirror…how cool is that, no more having to switch the little black thingy under the mirror when darkness appeared and the bright lights came from behind, moorn roof, a CD player, and controls for the radio on the steering wheel.

Well as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and so the GTP was traded earlier this week for my new 2009 Honda CR-V. It is awesome and I could not be happier! I found it a bit odd at first, going from a car to an SUV is different of course, the entire vehicle is higher, and it handles slightly different, and so on. After only having it a few days, I can’t imagine driving anything else, except of course my corvette. Talk about features, the list is too long, but suffice to say my husband is the best for putting up with my indecisiveness in choosing a new vehicle, allowing me to complain about it for one day, after we had already signed on the dotted line (it was different than cars I had driven so it was a change I had to get accustomed to), and for just allowing me to the proud owner and driver of this new white beauty in the driveway.

My husband tries extremely hard to make sure I am happy without spoiling me, and trust me that is not an easy task. His pet name for me is “Queen of Return” as I will buy bags of clothes and shoes at my favorite department store and then come home and try them all on again only to bring 80% of them back, this is a given. So you can imagine how hard it was for me to pick something to drive for the next 6 years that I would NOT be able to return! We did our homework and this is the number one rated vehicle in its class, it was affordable, it is “cute” and fun to drive, but it is also very safe receiving a 9.1 safety rating. It will be great for the three dogs and I (hubby too) to take drives to the pet store together and it has plenty of room to bring home bags of dog food, treats, new toys and should I ever need to get one I could even fit a large dog house! I can honestly say, we are extremely lucky to have been given the opportunity and very grateful as well to have had the ability to buy this vehicle for years of safe fun for the entire family; myself, hubby, and the fur-children-Otis, Marley and Brock.