a gift to ourselves

Just 9 years ago, my 17th birthday was just around the corner and my dad was helping me decide on my first car. When he asked what I wanted, I had many important specifications in mind ... "Hmm..., a pretty color, 4 wheels, and a CD player." My dad had a good laugh (and quite a different experience with my two brothers that followed). But, it sure did make the car buying process a lot easier! The first used car my dad found for me to take a look at was a 2001 Oldsmobile Alero. I took it for a test drive in the dealership parking lot and decided it was a winner! It was previously owned by an older gentleman who only put about 36,000 miles on it and had taken great care of the vehicle, inside and out. For that reason, my brothers referred to the car as a "Grandpa car," but I loved it and that's all that mattered.

That car was so good to me. Until recently, I rarely had any problems with it. I took the car with me everywhere -- Delaware, Boston, Washington DC, back and forth to Michigan too many times to count! One Spring Break, four of us piled in and took turns driving it all the way down to Florida! I'll admit that I had my fair share of minor accidents,  bumping into snow banks or parked cars (oops!). A deer hit me once and left some damage (yes, I believe the deer hit me, not the other way around -- it came out of nowhere!). But aside from my own mistakes, the old Alero was faithful to the end. As our only vehicle for quite some time, my husband and I put a lot of stock in that car!

So it was bittersweet for me when we realized the life of the Alero was coming to an end. We had racked up over 117,000 miles and the wear was starting to show. For the past couple years, more and more things started to go wrong and we realized we were spending more money on repair bills over the course of a year than we would on a new car payment. The time had finally come to start looking for a new car.

After months of research (thanks to my hubby for that!) and a few test drives, we decided to purchase a 2013 Subaru Impreza hatchback. After selling the Alero on Craigs List, we were all set to order our Subaru. We picked up the new ride last week and we absolutely love it. Merry Christmas to us! We hope this car treats us as well as the old Alero!