New Toys!!

Back in February, we were having a few problems with Mom’s car, but didn’t really think anything of it. Then we were heading down to Elliot’s house and only got about 2 miles down the road from our house, when we had some major issues. We turned around at the gas station behind my office and went back home to switch cars. My car hasn’t gone that far on the freeway in awhile, since we’d always take Mom’s car, but I was happy that it made it all the way down to Salem. After getting home, the car went into the shop and we were told that the transmission was shot and that it would cost quite a bit to replace it. Since it would cost more to replace it than what the car is worth, we decided that Mom should get a new car. This would be her 4th car ever, which is a testament to how great her cars have been and how well taken care of they were.

We didn’t want to leave Mom’s car for too long at the shop and I didn’t want to drive the car, so one of the men at church borrowed a trailer and we picked up Mom’s car:



We weren’t exactly sure what to do with Mom’s car, so our neighbor beside us (garage side) allowed us to park the car in her parking area. Here’s a picture before we got rid of her car:



We were down to one car for about three weeks, but Mom and I made it work. Mom finally picked out the car that she wanted, a BLUE 2008 Mercury Milan. During one of the test drives, we noticed that it was pretty loud in the car. but only near the back passenger side door. In talking with the Lincoln Mercury dealer, they agreed to fix it, so we were able to borrow a car. It turned out that the problem was different than what we first thought, so it took about a week, but we finally got her car back:



I’ve been wanting to get a new car for about two years and finally was able to go ahead with it. My dream car is a Mustang convertible, but with Mom’s new car, we recently found that I could not get a Mustang in the garage. With a soft top convertible and our Washington weather, I don’t want to be parking outside and I also don’t want Mom to park outside. I’ve also been interested in another vehicle, but wasn’t sure if I wanted to go towards a small SUV and I wasn’t sure if it would fit in the garage. I decided to check it out and according to the website, it looked like it should fit in our garage with Mom’s car. On one of the test drives, I brought it home and it fit in the garage perfectly. So on Saturday, May 23, I bought a 2008 Mercury Mariner (this picture is a little dark):



This one looks a little closer to the actual color (light blue):



In a way, it is hard to get rid of my old car, because my Dad bought it in 1999, the year before he died. :-(



It’s going to a good home and I thought it was time to get a new vehicle, plus this is my first car that I got to choose. The other two cars were given to me by Dad.

I went from a 1988 tan Nissan Sentra to a 1997 red Mercury Mystique to a 2008 blue Mercury Mariner. Mom went from a 1967 blue Dodge car to a 1977 blue Dodge Aspen to a 1994 blue Buick Regal to a 2008 blue Mercury Milan.