Drive yourself happy

I've been planning on replacing my  '01 mini-van this summer, so last summer I starting shopping around to decide what to get.  (There are a number of annoying little things wrongs with my current ride, so 'just in case' something major goes wrong and I need to go get something 'then and there' to replace it I wanted to have my ducks in a row, with the decision made and ready to execute.)

My current Dodge Caravan replaced a previous Dodge Caravan (so that was an easy non-decision) but now that the kids are grown I can 'move on' to something else.  So many (too many?) choices - it's not easy to find the perfect vehicle.  Of course there's really no such thing as perfect, so I'm just going to have to go with 'as close as possible'.

The biggest issue I've found is that the car designers (like so many others) are aiming at a younger generation

(Alex, at 27 months; 

he looks a tad different now - and drives a  slightly different vehicle) 

who are more concerned with what I call technology perks (most of which would probably just aggravate me because the learning curve to use them would most likely be pretty steep for an old geezer like me) while I'd much rather have what I consider safety features, my top one being memory seats and mirrors.  And who wants a dark vehicle in Arizona?!  I'm amazed that they even bother to ship those to our part of the country, where 11 out of 10 vehicles on the road seem to be white.  (Hey, when it's triple digit temps for months on end, anything helps, even a psychological boost of a 'cooler' white vehicle!)  One car dealer tried to sway us by citing a recent study (which Tom and I had both read ) that claimed dark cars are no hotter inside than light ones, but we didn't go for it.  Reminded me of all the baby books that insisted kids don't run a low-grade fever when they're teething, but I (and virtually every other mom I know) say differently, from  first-hand experience!  However after almost 20 years of driving white vehicles, I wouldn't mind something a little easier to find in the parking lot (yes, I've gone to the wrong van more than once) like bright red! At this point my first choice is (still) the Chevy Equinox

although would you believe that when we stopped in at the nearby Chevy place on Memorial Day weekend (traditionally a big time for selling cars), and despite their claims that they 'really' wanted to selI us one, they were not willing to deal AT ALL on the sticker price (which, of course, was considerable.)  I haven't had an actual car in 40 years (a sporty, bright yellow Camaro that was my college graduation gift - THANK YOU Mom & Dad!!!) Instead, I have driven a Chevy Pickup, a Blazer, 2 Suburbans, and then the 2 minivans.  So no real surprise that cars just seem too low to the ground - I feel more vulnerable with all the trucks and SUVs out here - but have to admit I sure did like the snazzy Honda Accord I test drove while at Honda checking out their CRV.  One very nice perk the Honda Accord had (and that nothing else has mentioned) was that you could open the windows remotely - would be SO nice to let some of that parked summer hot air out before getting in!  (Heated seats, which are often mentioned, are not so much of a selling point here...)
Shopping (except maybe at a craft show) has never been my thing (my Mom doesn't have the shopping gene either), and I'll be happy when the decision is finally made and I don't have to do it again for another 10 years. 

Case in point: When Tom and I got married in '88 (the second time around for each of us) at my folks' house back in Maryland I figured it would be a casual affair.  Imagine my surprise, after 2 years of seeing him in t-shirts and jeans, when he said he was going to wear a suit!  (No, he didn't own one at the time.)  Which meant I had to wear a dress!  So I popped over to a friend's house to see if she had something in her closet that I could borrow for the occasion.  She did - problem solved in 10 minutes! (Note: her husband was the one who set us up on a blind date, to play racquetball.)

 Tom wants to keep shopping (he says I'm an impulse buyer, but anything that shortens the shopping experience works for me!) but he's got a miserable cold and hasn't been up for going out and about this weekend.  I just feel like I've been looking for a year now (didn't drag him around with me until recently) and am really tired of the entire process.