Kevin and I have never been really big on cars. We never really felt the need to get a big, flashy or pimped up ride...just because it's a cool thing to do. To me, a car serves the purpose of transporting us from point A to B and that's about it. I'm not saying that we don't like nice cars (who doesn't, right?), it's just that we don't see the point of throwing a whole bunch of money into one. Maybe one day, when we are super rich and have a lot of excess cash, then will we look into getting a high end or sports car :P That's why, for now, we were happy with our old beaten up 1999 Chevy Lumina. As long as it still moves, everything is cool with us.
For the past few months, our Chevy have been making a lot of noises when we apply the brakes. Lately, we can hear loud clanking noises even when we just drive normally. We knew that it wasn't such a good sign, it looked like our old faithful Lumina was slowly dying on us. The final straw came last Thursday, when Kevin was driving over some railroad tracks. He wasn't sure what he ran over but there was a loud crash and after that, we could hear like a ringing sound, like something has been broken off. Now, the car is only worth $400 (at the most) and getting it fixed would set us back about $2k. Looks like we didn't really have a choice but to go out and get ourselves a new car. So, we headed out to Planet Honda on Route 22 on Saturday to get one!
Prior to all this, we have been looking around at cars (since our Lumina first started giving us problems). After all the research, we narrowed it down to either the Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. Both cars have their own pros and cons but we finally came to the conclusion that the Honda has a slight edge over the Toyota, in terms of resale value and the 'cool factor' :P After spending like what seemed ages negotiating, we finally reached the magic number and we were ready to sign. It took almost 4 hours, from the time we walked into the dealership to the time we were ready to sign. Phewwww, what a long and stressful day.
Here is Kevin saying goodbye to our old friend, the 1999 Chevy Lumina. It was actually quite a bittersweet feeling, to trade her in. While clearing her out earlier that morning, we found many things from the past few years of our lives. Things like the sitting chart from our wedding dinner in Pittsburgh, an invitation to one of Kevin's good friends wedding (they just celebrated their 2nd anniversary not too long ago), brochures that we picked up in Hersheys when my parents came to visit us, the envelopes that held our plane tickets from Marlboro...even a price tag from some newborn baby's rompers. It took me a while to figure out how THAT got into our car. Then I remembered. We were on the way to visit a friend who just had a baby and I was wrapping the present up in the car. I guess I must have forgotten to throw the tag away. Oh, by the way, the baby is now a 3 year old toddler :P Ahhhh the memories, we will surely miss our old faithful Lumina.
After saying goodbye, we headed over to the new car delivery section of the dealership and with a firm handshake, Mike Hanna (our salesman) congratulated us and we now have the keys to our brand new Honda Civic LX!
Here it is! This is the first photo I took of Kevin with our new car. Doesn't it look all shiny and nice? I just love the new car smell :P I wonder how long before all that goes away? Wanna see more photos of the car? Well, I'm gonna show them off anyways, even if you say no. So, enjoy!
There were quite a number of colors to choose from. It was a toss up between Polished Metal or Urban Titanium. At last we went with Urban Titanium. Polished Metal is gray, with a bluish undertone where else the Urban Titanium has a brown undertone. I felt that the Urban Titanium has a warmer look, so we went with that. Also, the Urban Titanium is a new color (just introduced last year) and it's only available for Civics and CR-Vs. Looks cool, eh? Here are more photos from different angles.
The interior looks pretty cool at night. Just love the blue back light, kinda sharp looking :P We still haven't gotten our license plate yet, so we are still driving around with our temporary plates. Hopefully we will get it by this weekend or early next week. We are both still very excited about our new car and we can't wait to collect more happy memories with our Civic, just like how we did with our Lumina! :D
Your new car is just beautiful! It looks so classy but fierce! And the interior looks like it’s packed with some awesome features and controls. I understand how sad you felt when you had to let go of your Chevy Lumina. But I think it’s just right and practical, too, that you finally let her retire. Now, it’s time to make new memories with your new beautiful car! I wonder what things you’ll leave there in the next few years. Haha!
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