Since the Hubs and I have been together, we have purchased a total of 4 cars and been gifted one (in a complicated family swap).   Each of the previous 4 car buying decisions have been easy.  The first two we bought while we were dating, so really the other person didn’t have much say in the matter.  I ended up with a brand new Neon right after college and he got a used Ford Thunderbird.  Neither were the prettiest of cars, but both served us really well when we moved to Maryland and were as cheap as cars could be (combined car payment was $300 a month!).

When we moved back to NY, we quickly realized that his rear-wheel drive car and my tiny tin can weren’t going to cut it during the long winters- especially given we live in an area called the Snow Belt.  So we went looking for 4-wheel drive SUVs back in 2004.  We had grand expectations until we saw the price tag that came with the really huge SUVs and eventually settled on a Jeep Cherokee.  Really, the car buying process was easy as we both knew and agreed upon what we wanted.  And we loved the car- it drove great, looked sporty and was safe.  Best of all, it was  big enough to accommodate Scorch when he came along in 2006 and the Bean when she was born in 2008.

Too bad I got into a major accident in 2009 and totaled the thing (something the Hubs still like to remind me of).  For 13 months after that, we were a one car family- driving the 2001 van we were gifted from my family.  The family roadster was a great vehicle, but it had seen better days even before we got it.  But it served us well until it died one morning in March of 2010 and the reality of having 1 car when you lived in the middle of nowhere and  had to get a kid to school and one person to work really sunk in.  Thankfully the van was revived, but we knew we had to get a new car ASAP.  Again, the decision was pretty easy- with two growing kids, we couldn’t deny the ease of having a van, so we bought another van- just a  newer model with a lot less miles.

The Hubs manhood took a severe beating that day.

Fast forward 14 months and our old van is really dying this time and we’re in the market for a new car.  The Hubs was adamant that this car not be another van, so we went looking at SUVs.  I thought we had decided on what we wanted, but I was clearly wrong given how our shopping went today.

I was stressing safety and passenger room- how having a 3rd row would really be great when we were driving around the kids and their friends.  I looked at the all the extra’s- some of these cars were loaded with remote starters and heated seats- niceties we’ve never had before.  The Hubs couldn’t have cared less. He looked at the SUVs I liked and told me they were chick cars- really not what he had in mind.  So after excusing ourselves from our sales guy, we had to walk away to actually have an argument about what exactly we were looking for.

Turns out the Hubs wanted a pick up truck.

Given how silly I thought the idea was when you take into account our lifestyle, I was damn proud of myself for agreeing to check out a few.  Thankfully after looking at a few and realizing that no, not even with a extended cab, a pick up truck doesn’t make sense we came to some sort of compromise and narrowed things down.

I think.

Our next shopping trip will tell us that for sure.  In the mean time, I’m going to be looking online lusting after all the extra’s I won’t get so my husband can feeling tough and manly while driving our two kids around.