A "New" Car

Rich and I have been living with one car. It's been bearable since he's been on disability. But, my trip to Brazil spoiled him a bit. He had the car while I was gone for 2 weeks and there is no way that he could go back to taking public transportation. His commute is from Pinole to Fremont. And if you think traffic is a bitch, try taking buses, bart, and more buses to reach your final destination. I feel somewhat guilty saying that with gas prices the way they are.

Anyway, he's going back to work soon and we decided that our goal for this weekend was to buy a car. We knew that we wanted a commute car with a lot of space for our weekly Costco runs, and of course Kobi and Camren.

We dropped by a few used car lots on Saturday to get an idea of what the prices were like and what types of cars were out there. We did see a SAAB (yes another one) 900 Hatchback that we liked. So, we left a deposit.

But after coming home and searching for cars on the internet, we knew it was overpriced. But the trip there wasn't a total waste. We found the car that we wanted. It's a 4 cylinder, so not a gas guzzler. And the trunk space is amazing. Something that my car definitely lacks. Kobi and I could actually fit in the trunk!

So, after doing research on Kelly Blue Book and running carfax histories on several options, we settled on 2 SAABs. One was being sold by a private party in Benicia and the other by a dealer in Napa.

So Monday, we made appointments to see both. We were hoping to hit Benicia first then Napa, but it didn't work out that way. The Benicia guy wasn't ready for us in the morning, so we headed out to Napa.

We fell in love with the car right away but didn't want to jump the gun and buy it. It was a 98 Turbo with immaculate leather seats and the outside looked brand new. All for less than $5k.

We weren't supposed to meet up in Benicia until later that evening, but we felt like we needed to make a decision. So, I called him up and asked to meet up with him within the next hour and a half. So, we headed out in that direction and decided to eat lunch there.

There isn't much in Benicia. We drove around downtown for about 10 minutes but only came across fast food joints. So, at a red light, we asked a cop where there were places to eat. Surprisingly, he told us to pull into the parking lot so he could tell us...that was really nice of him.

We found an awesome place called 1st St. Cafe by the Marina. They had the best open faced crab and artichoke sandwich. And we had a kick ass raspberry bread pudding. Who would have thought we would find such a great place to eat in Benicia?

Anyway, the Benicia car was a black 96. We pulled up and right away, you could see the scratches on the body. Then we took it for a test drive. The turbo was shot and I was actually nervous driving it on the onramp since there was no pick up. Then I started playing with the buttons and flipping mirrors. Broken and Broken. The funny thing was this was the seller's commuter car. He had a garage full of Mercedes convertibles, Porsches, and BMWs. It looked like an MTV Cribs episode with the garage full of expensive cars. We knew this wasn't the car for us.

So, we drove all the way back to Napa and bought the car. I'm actually going to use it for commuting until Rich goes back to work. My car only takes premium but this one takes regular. So, I'll save a little money for a little while.

Then to take the edge off our stressed out bodies, we drove to Calistoga to see if we could get a massage. When we got there, it was already 5, so I was a little nervous about even getting an appointment. We parked right outside of a day spa, walked in, and they took the both of us right away. Just our luck!

It was a stressful yet great day. I had an awesome time hanging out with Rich, and of course buying a new toy!