Kara’s New Car

To test what an ’01 Honda Civic EX, granted with a really low ~ 46k miles, would get in these fuel economy minded times, I put Kara’s car for sale on Craigslist last Wednesday.  With in 24 hours I had 4 people who had contacted and at least one of which offering my asking price sight unseen.   So yesterday we sold the Civic and Kara shed a few tears since she was giving up the car she had bought new when she graduated from U of I.   We had already arranged to purchase an ’08 Acura TSX though, and it now seems safe to say there are no more tears, as the new car is very nice.  Here are a few pictures….

     

Christmas… Yes, I know it’s February

Basically since the start of the year, I’ve been on call at work.  That means I get pages to respond to equipment issues 24 hrs a day Monday – Friday, and as of 2 weeks ago, about half of my weekends will be on call too.   In fact, 2 weeks ago I got the “opportunity” to, on a Saturday night, work on some equipment from about 9pm until about 1:30am.  What does that have to do with Christmas and the fact that it’s mid-February?  Pretty simple, life is too busy & moving too quickly these days….   😦

In any event, here’s the reader’s digest version of what we’ve been up to for the last 2 months: 

1) Christmas!- Bailey got a rubber ducky yellow rain jacket for Christmas from one of his grandparents that ironically enough matches his dad’s yellow Marmot rain jacket.

  

2) Happy Newyears! While his parents had a great time celebrating New Years eve at Oba (Pearl district restaurant that I’d highly recommend) with some good friends, Bailey didn’t seem as excited to wear the beads and “2008” glasses as his dad was just hours earlier. 

 

3) Showshoeing is fun. Mt. Hood has got a ton of snow this year. As I write this, they have a ~ 180″ base (that’s 15ft!). Kara got us some snowshoes for Christmas and we went new years day. Can you say POWDER?! We were able to go anywhere we wanted in the woods eventhough there was that much snow.

  

4) Portland International Auto Show. We went a couple weekends ago with some friends. There were definitely some nice rides there. Even some that I hadn’t heard of before, such as this Dutch Spyker. Yes, Kara, there are some cars that I don’t know about (though they’re available in limited quantities)!

Goodbye Pathfinder… Hello Subaru Outback

I traded in my ’01 Nissan Pathfinder today.   Just about had a tear roll down my face when i saw my trusty vehicle driven off amidst the pouring down rain today.   Kinda like loosing a good friend who’s been there for you without asking for too much in return.  Ok, now that I got that out, I’ll move on to the positive.  Hopefully, I met a new friend today named Mr. Subaru Outback 2.5i. 

I should state for the record that I’ve been a “car guy” for a long time.   Probably has something to do with my dad’s interest in cars and my fundamental interest in just about anything mechanical.   I’m regularly reading numerous car blogs and auto magazines when ever I get a chance.   But I must admit that I’ve changed my outlook over the last few years.   Maybe it’s that gas now costs $3.50 a gallon or just that I’ve become a closeted treehugger, but I had enough with driving a SUV.   I’ve flirted numerous times in the last 6.5 yrs of SUV ownership with getting something new and I’m not sure what was so different this time, but I went ahead and bought a new car.  I had thought about many other wagons and hatchbacks (almost required when you like my pasttimes and a dog), but decided that the Subaru offered the right balance of everthing I was looking for.

The “old” Chris would have likely bought the turbocharged Outback, but the “new” Chris decided to get the naturally aspirated version after appreciating the fact that it’s powerful enough for everything but  stop light drag races and is better for the earth and my pocketbook in the fact that it takes regular gas (vs premium) and gets better mileage.   I originally wasn’t a huge fan of the two-tone blue / silver combo, but Kara seemed to like it and I think it will grow on me (and I got the black interior and 5spd which were the musts for me).   

Though, I must be getting old since I just bought a station wagon!!  Ahhh!! The irony of it is that I was driving a jacked up, gas hungry, poor handling station wagon (SUV) ever since I bought the Pathfinder in July of ’01.  And a friend of mine told me yesterday that it’s ok if you buy a station wagon if you have a dog so at least I have that going for me (while trying to keep my male ego intact as best I can).

Brief review:  Since the northwest is getting battered right now with a Winter storm (50mph winds, rain, cold temps), the Outback basically got driven straight home from the dealer today, but I can already tell that it’s substantially more fun to drive with the 5 spd manual than the automatic pathfinder ever was.   And with the all wheel drive it should provide just as good of transportation for camping, mountain biking, and especially skiing.  All that and I’m expecting a solid 5 to 10+ mpg above what the pathfinder would do so now we can justify taking it on trips where the civic would only go before.  I’ll likely post up some more pictures and driving impressions once I get a little more time behind the wheel and the rain stops blowing sideways.