Wishing I could start with the push of a button!

What’s better than a new month with a clean slate ahead of us to write our history on? I’ll tell you, it’s a new, or at least new-er, car!  

In early June I slowly came to the realization that the 2000 Pontiac Bonneville I was driving, was approaching old age with, like some of us, more parts that didn’t work than did.

The a/c didn’t work, the windshield washer didn’t work, the turn signals worked only when they felt like it. The Service Engine Soon light was constantly glaring at me no matter what I did. For the car’s annual registration inspection, the service station did a smoke check (blowing smoke into the pipes to see where the obstruction was) and that turned the light off, finally. The next time I put gas in the car, the light came back on and stayed on. Besides that, the tail lights would fill up with water every time it rained, so when I opened the trunk to take grocery bags out, water poured into the trunk. All that water took its toll on the interior, leaving a horrid musty smell.

The car did have one good feature. Even though it was sixteen years old, it only had 77,000 miles on it. Regardless, it was time to bid it adieu and start looking for a better car. Realize, almost any car on the market would have been better than that wreck!

I started looking on line for a car in my price range and when I narrowed my search to a couple of places, I called in the cavalry.  Bill and Cyndi came up on a Tuesday, June 7 to be exact, and went car shopping with me. I wanted Bill there because he knew what to look for in a car and what to avoid. I wanted my daughter Cyndi with me because she’s a little pit bull and would in no way let anyone take advantage of her mother who, in car years, was about the same age as the Pontiac.

My choices the week before were down to a Buick, Honda, or Toyota. The more I researched, the more I kept landing on a Toyota Prius hybrid. Fred and I rented a Prius in 2008 for our cross-country trip. We put 10,000 miles on that car and loved every minute of it. I would never ever have thought I’d someday own a Prius, but, fast forward eight years and I now own a Prius!

It’s a 2007 Prius, gold with tan interior and is more fun to drive than you could ever imagine. The doors unlock by themselves when I get near the car, the car starts with the push of a button and goes into Park by pushing a button. It has a back-up camera, terrific a/c, and roomy interior and trunk. AND, there’s no water in the tail lights!  When it's running on electric, it's so quiet you don't think it's running. Then it switches over to gas.

I feel downright regal driving it, and very safe. I also like getting 45–50 miles to the gallon!

I don’t feel I deserve such a nice car, but since I have it, I shall enjoy the heck out of it!  Bill is happy, too, even though it means his unpaid career as mechanic to my Pontiac has come to an end.

Quote of the Day: There is no man living that cannot do more than he thinks he can. Henry Ford