Well, it probably is for others, but difficult for me. We do pretty well on recycling, and I've also made a concerted effort to focus more on reducing and reusing as well. Driving is my Achilles Heel. Or vehicles are, I should say. I drive about 45 miles a day between work and daycare, and more if I'm going to client sites. Luckily, it's mostly highway driving, but still quite a bit of mileage. My problem is threefold - I want a large family car; I feel safer in a SUV in the land of Big Trucks, and I can't get over my hangup about minivans. I am extremely envious of parents with minivans - they seem so practical, especially with multiple children. These days, if you want them, you can get every bell and whistle imaginable, too. Why my hangup? I don't know. I think it is in part due to the fact that there is so very little cool left in my life as a 37-year-old-mother-of-two, I'm hanging on to the last shred of "non-Mommy" by not getting the requisite minivan. I know, I should realize that a) who am I kidding? Just give it up, already, and b) the fact that when I open my car doors, Cheerios, goldfish, and toys fall out pretty much seals the deal on any car I have being a Mommy Car. Alas, I can't be practical on this point.
Anyhoo, now I'm digressing. My point is that large SUV's eat up a lot of gas, especially the ones I prefer with their larger performance engines. Last year, we were able to get an exceptional deal on a 2 year lease. Now leasing is generally a pretty dumb route to go, but it was a great deal and a good choice for us since we didn't know if we wanted to be tied down to a vehicle that gets such poor mileage (16 mpg hwy) when gas was $4/gallon. If I liked it, we'd buy it out at the end of the lease. The key reason we went with this car is that it has a 3rd row seat. Weezie and Sprinkle's carseats are enormous, and I had anticipated needing more seats to take the girls' friends around, especially when they start school (and sports activities, etc.)
The lease is not up until next year, but we've been deliberating for a while as to what to replace it with (we decided against keeping it for various reasons.) We looked into hybrids, but it didn't make economical sense because most of my driving is hwy, and I'd have to give up the third row. We finally hit upon a solution - we went diesel. We just bought a diesel version of the car I used to drive (which I loved). The newer version has a 3rd row seat, too. While its 3rd row kind of sucks, it's fine for kids. It also gets 26 mpg. While that's nothing to write home about, it's great mileage for someone who wants an SUV that seats 7. Jim is selling his car (it's nearing 9 years, so it's time) and driving the lease.
The manufacturer gave us a $4500 eco-credit for going diesel. This rebate isn't government funded but the idea is obviously borrowed from Cash for Clunkers. We also get an $1800 tax credit for going green. I find it highly ironic (and a bit wrong) that I'm getting "eco" credit for buying an SUV, but hey, I'll take it.
Lost Symbol
I received my copy of Dan Brown's latest. I've had it two days and haven't cracked it open. I know once I start reading it I'll be useless for 5-6 hours until it's done. Hurry up weekend! I'm hoping I'm not disappointed, but it really doesn't matter because I am a Sucker for serial novels.
I Give Up
Stupid formatting is not working right on my first topic. Apologies to my friends that get RSS feeds on my failed update attempts.
3 comments:
sigh, and that should be for my friends WHOM...
so what is the new car?
same one that Megan and I used to drive.
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