first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes family friendly car...

In April 2013, Jason & I bought a 2009 Volkswagen GTI. It was a pretty sweet car, fast and with a really nice interior. We loved it, but it constantly had issues, with the check engine light popping up every 3 months or so. We were lucky that it was a certified used car, because every repair we've had to make was covered by the warranty, but that warranty was coming to an end soon and those repairs were going to start getting expensive. Add to that the fact that the people at the Volkswagen dealership near us are completely incompetent assholes, who would let us come in and sit in their waiting room for hours before calling us down to let us know they needed to order a part and we would need to come back at a later time, to play the waiting game all over again. I should also mention that Jason & I have been a single car family since winter last year, as we work together and our second car would literally sit on the street for weeks at a time which led us to sell it. We need a reliable car, something that won't break down quarterly.

This weekend was the last straw for me. We made an appointment at Volkswagen to get our oil changed and have the check engine light that popped up on Monday checked out on Monday evening for the following Saturday as it was the first available appointment we could make with our work schedules. On Friday afternoon, the day before our scheduled appointment, they called to cancel and reschedule us for the following Monday morning -- ie. when we would be at work... We made the weekend appointment for a reason! 

We had been casually looking at cars at that point, knowing we'd have to trade it in before the warranty expired, even going to the Honda dealership by our house the week before to test drive a CR-V (a great experience, I should add). On Saturday morning, instead of heading to Volkswagen to get our car worked on, we headed to Mazda to check out the CX-5. We spent 4 hours at the dealership, going as far as to have our credit checked so we could get an accurate idea of how much we'd be spending each month, but after lots of promises to work with us on our trade and on the price, we were disappointed to have a nearly $400 monthly payment quoted to us, before the interest was even factored in! The car was great, the salesman we worked with was nice, but it just wasn't a fit for our budget. We took a Steak'n'Shake break and then headed back to Honda to test drive the Mid-level Honda CR-V. Here, we had more great service -- and broke down and bought our family friendly SUV. We got a great price, they paid off our trade-in, and the service was great. In Jason's words, "first comes love, then comes Bennie (our second pup), then comes marriage, then comes a CR-V." Our fast, fun car is gone, but our family friendly, safe, reliable SUV is an excellent replacement and we look forward to having it for years to come, as we have kids & shuttle them off to daycar, school, soccer games, and beyond.