Momma wants a new car - help pick it!

Well as you may have gathered reading these blogs over the past few years, no car is safe in our household. Each ride is just an oil change or set of new tires away from getting sold or traded in. And so it goes...

After hours of serious discussion, back and forth banter, huge sessions of give and take, we decided that Momma deserves a new ride. Normally that means getting a pretty nice ride, but something in the 4-6 year old range. Her current car is a 2005 Porsche Cayenne. But I decided that it would be nice to get her something new. As in brand new, no miles and a full factory warranty. Turns out that we have not bought a new car together since 1993 - before our youngest was born. He is now almost twenty years old. Wow, it's been a long time. I bought a 2006 Audi A3, but I went out and did that on my own and surprised my wife when I pulled up to the house. She was, to put it mildly...not too happy with yours truly.

The last car we bought new at a dealership was a 1993 Mazda 626 with the hot Ford quad cam V-6. It was deep forest green and very curvy. It lasted about a year and a half at our house. Green and curvy just was not our thing. I cannot even remember what we replaced it with, it has been so long. But that purchase was infamous (at least at our household) for being the time our oldest son (then still in diapers) helped in the negotiation process by pooping. We did not have a spare diaper, so it got pretty ripe in the sale cube. The sales guy dashed out of the cube (when we would not budge on the trade and payments) and dashed to his managers office, no doubt begging him to cave in to our price just to rid his cube of some serious poop action. Our oldest still takes great pride in knowing that he was an integral part of the negotiation process.

So back to the current situation-we talk about cars, like all the time. She wants something small and fuel efficient. But we have a big dog that requires a big back seat so tiny is out. That means no Mini Countryman or Prius (thank God!). In this case, a new car means a SUV or Crossover. We love the size of the Porsche Cayenne, buy not the fuel efficiency. So our shopping journey has taken us down a different path. We are looking compact SUV's - the 2014 Jeep Cherokee, Ford Escape, Hyundai Sante Fe Sport and Audi Q5 (base model). They are all in the $35-38K range and depending on the car come with a ton of kit. Or in the case of the Q5, not so much.

Some folks have criticized the looks of the new Jeep Cherokee, but we really like it. Some reviewers have mentioned that the car faintly echos the Pontiac Aztec, but that seems a bit harsh. The interior is brilliant and the technology is awesome. The Escape? It is pretty close. I think she needs to drive them back to back. The Sante Fe Sport, it is the unknown. I think she needs to take a close look at it and I happen to know the owner of the local dealership, so I know a good deal would be in the works. The Q5? It is awesome, but a bit under equipped versus its competitors. But man is in nice.

We just need to weigh everything and after back to back to back to back drives, hopefully we will be a little bit closer to the final decision. So how can you help? I have added a poll for you to pick your fav SUV from our list of likely purchases. Help us pick our next car!! It is just a click away.

Thanks!!