Out with the Old, In with the New

My 2001 Ford Taurus was a great car. It drove well, was comfortable, safe and never stranded me anywhere in the 9 years and 147,000 miles that I drove it. But it had come to the end of its useful life, even before the windshield incident last week. It was having maintenance issues that would cost more than the value of the car to fix properly, and was pretty far out of date in the way of features, including some things you begin to take for granted, like the ability to connect an ipod rather than shuffling cds in and out of the car.

So, this morning, the Taurus went to live on a farm upstate and was replaced by this, a 2011 Honda Accord. Yay! I looked at a bunch of other sedans, some with fancier nameplates and significantly higher price tags, but for a combination of features and price, this 6-cylinder EX-L has basically everything in it that Honda makes other than their navigation system (which I didn't want) and still ended up way less expensive than some of those German cars' stripped down versions, even after I added a 100,000 mile all-inclusive warranty.

I've only had the car for about an hour, but it drives like a dream and has already found its first geocache. We have had such a great experience with the Pilot we got for Christmas 2008 (and the Scott Honda dealership) that when it came time to look for a new car for me, the Accord had to be in the mix. I haven't had a new car for me in a very long time. To say I'm pretty excited would be an understatement...