Oh and random stuff

I almost forgot! My car decided to die yesterday. I'm not quite ready to buy a car yet. I think I know what I want but I want to wait til spring next year to buy something. More on that in a minute. So at the worst possible financial moment when we are about to go into the month that my husband isn't bringing home a paycheck (the new company has a lag of 60 days. BRUTAL!) It's not the battery because it sounds like it wants to start but no... I will be getting to work late again also at the worst possible moment. Thanks Miata! Great timing!!

Now back to the new car... We want to shop around for a while because I wasn't really sure what kind of car I want. This will probably be my first true grownup car. I have had a life of sports cars up until now. Toyota MR2, Miatas, and Mustangs are the cars I have owned up til now. I love the having a two seater convertible however I'm married now and we have a 14 year old in the house. When the hubby goes hunting he either leaves us with just the Miata (which is fine right up until the teenager invites a friend over) or he takes the Miata with him... not exactly the most practical choice for hunting.

So if I have to do a grownup vehicle, I insist on it at least being a convertible still. My choices are limited really. I could do another Mustang. It does have a backseat but the one I want is also a gas guzzler. There are a bunch made by companies like BMW and Mercedes but they are just a bit too far out of my comfort zone on price. My choices are a Saab 9-3, Audi A4, and the Volvo C70. All are still very expensive admittedly but I think we are going to go for one of these. We test drove the Saab and Volvo so far. The Audi is a good bit more so I doubt I will go for that one but I will test drive it soon.

The Saab was a nice car and very much still has the sports car feel to it. This would be an easy transition for me but it's a bit smaller with less trunk space than the Volvo.

The Volvo was REALLY nice. The hubby is voting for this car. He loved it from the start and I'll admit that I do too. If you had told me when I was younger that I would be considering a Volvo, I would have thought you were nuts. But the cars are a lot less boxy than they used to be and the C70 is a sweet looking convertible. Oh and did I mention that it has a retractable hard top??

After we get back from the test drive the salesman comes up to us and asks what we thought and then asks what our time frame was. My first thought was "Oh great, here comes the hard sales tactics." Instead he tells us about how we can actually get the car cheaper if we go pick it up in Sweden. WHAT??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? How can this possibly be cheaper? Then he explains that Volvo flies you to Gothenburg, Sweden, puts you up in a very nice hotel, takes you on a plant tour and feeds you lunch. Then you take ownership of the car and can have it shipped right away or you can take a driving vacation of Europe that they arrange for you (you pay for any extra stay). Then you can ship the vehicle from where ever you drive to for a small fee or you can drive back to Gothenburg where they will ship it for free. Oh! Did I mention that the car will be $3K cheaper if you do all this?

We are seriously considering this option. Hmmmmm... Free flight and one night hotel stay in Sweden. $3k break on the price of the car. Gosh let me think about this one... Yep, I think we may do this. The reason I want to wait until spring to buy the car is that I don't really think I want to go to Sweden in the wintertime. I am a wimpy Texan and don't like cold. We would go now but it takes 2 and a half months to build the car which puts us in the middle of winter. Now to figure out where we should go from Sweden...