Searching for a New Fi Mobile

 

Before we started trying to get pregnant, John and I decided to do some upgrading. We remodeled our kitchen, got new floors, transformed the little “office” room into a guest bedroom and turned the closet into a desk space.

After I became pregnant, we turned the old guest room into Fiona’s room because it’s bigger. We also renovated Fiona’s room, adding two closets and a built in desk. The desk is being used a changing table right now. We expanded the window seat and added drawers and had some shelves built in to one of the walls. We replaced all the doors in the house with newer, nicer looking ones, changed out all the door handles, and replaced our outdated blinds with either curtains or shutters, depending on the room.

 

The only thing left to do is get a new car. John’s car is over 10 years old and have over 200,000 miles on it. It’s an adequate vehicle, but we’d like something newer and cleaner that doesn’t rattle as much.

We originally planned to find a new vehicle in July, during my month of not working but not yet having a baby. Obviously those plans changed. Then we thought we had time to do it while Fiona was still in the hospital, but for various reasons, we were not able to. Now she’s home and we have no time to find a new vehicle. We were lucky enough to test drive a few cars and have narrowed it down to two. We want to drive them again so we can make a final decision. Both are rated equally high depending on what agency you go to (Consumer Reports, Edmunds, etc.)

The first is the Subaru Forester.

Plusses: It’s a great value, we love the interior, the fuel economy is not the same as my Honda Civic, but it’s not bad either. It’s available in manual transmission and the models they have right now have a sun roof and heated front seats. It’s a great value for the money.

Minuses: Has a truck suspension and the clutch is not as tight as I’d like. Feels like I’m driving John’s car.

The second car is the Toyota RAV4.

Plusses: It handles well, is a 4x4, interior is nice, same fuel economy as the Forester, and the trunk door swings out instead of being a hatchback. For me this is a plus because I am short and it’s nice not to have to reach up to close the trunk.

Minuses: The car seat would have to go behind either the driver or the passenger, not in the middle. I don’t like the rear seatbelt configuration. It’s more expensive and you get less for your money, it’s only available in automatic and we really like our stick shifts!

Neither of the vehicles feels like a big car and both handle very similarly. The manufacturers have excellent reputations. I know we can’t go wrong with either one. I’m not sure I’m ready to betray Honda for Toyota or join the cult that is being a Subaru owner.

I told John that I’m at the point of holding up a picture of each in front of Fiona and choosing the one that she bats at first.