Piggy Back Car.

Ugh! This was our daughter's car after

her tire blew out on the highway at the

end of a trip. Thankfully, she was able

to safely pull over, called her roadside

assistance and we got there to pick her

and our grandson up as the tow truck

was ready to take her car to the shop.

She now has two new tires on the back

and is saving for two new front tires.

Thankful and grateful for a safe ride.

~ Chy

Car Memories.

My dad had this car. Same color. Same

style. I loved driving it when I could!

Safe Landing.

After what I will always remember as

the "plane ride from Hell" ~ a topic

we won't explore here as I really don't

want to go back there, EVER ~ we had

a safe though bumpy landing on our

version of Heaven on Earth ~ a tiny

island on the West Coast of Canada.

And even though there is NO snow

on the ground and the temperatures

are mild, we still had to scrape our

little rental car when we went to pick

it up. Felt like home, for a moment.

Frosty Departure.

We bid a fond farewell to our old Honda CRV yesterday as it was driven away by the nice guys from the dealership who came out to get it running after it wouldn't start on Thursday. It delayed the paperwork and we had to wait until today to pick up the new car. Worth the wait though. And we're very impressed with the service to date. They took back the old car,  no questions, no penalties, free and clear. And sent out the service guys yesterday to boost then drive the car back to the dealership. Today, they sent the shuttle to pick us up so we wouldn't have to drive a car in and then drive two cars back. Didn't even have to ask, they offered, we accepted. Felt like a celebrity walking in as they know us so well now. The paperwork was seamless, though they did discover a calculation error so we ended up with an even lower payment then we successfully negotiated to start with. Drove us over to registries to finalize the government documents, then back to the dealership to go over the new car head to toe and an hour later we were off for our first official drive. Piece of cake! Very much worth the time and the effort to do our homework, then use a free program to find out the invoice price, start the negotiations early and low, and don't back down with what we want. Works every time. Now we can enjoy and not think about numbers and time frames and features. All done in time for the New Year!

Seven Years.

 I bought my car brand new in 2011. It was the 2012

model and we haggled it down to their invoice price.

Such a good deal. I could actually sell it today for

very close to what I paid for it. But I won't sell it.

You can see in the first picture that I was just a bit

under 100,000 kms. I had been watching for weeks ....

.... and finally it was THE day, the day I'd hit the big

number. I realized when I was on the freeway that I

would turn over to 100,000 kms within minutes. So

I attempted to head off a side road and ended up

behind a guy going so very slow and I couldn't get

around him. I didn't quite get a chance to capture

100,000 kms but I got the next best thing. Truthfully

if we still lived in town, I'd probably only be around

the 86,000 km mark. But moving to the country

has added some kms to my car. Not bad though, for

owning it a full seven years. I hope to keep it for 

at least another three to five years. We paid it off

the first year and it is lovely not having payments.

I'm saving up now for the time when I'll buy again.

Finally ....

.... she can drive. Our youngest is now

able to drive, with one of us with her

still. But a practicing driver she is!

She's quite good and very accurate

her decisions. I'm a proud mama.

Sitting in the back while the daddy guy

helps her back up using the mirrors. I

am glad he is so patient and calm. Now

she needs practice and then her own car.