"Congratulations, It's a ... Honda"

Yesterday was a momentous day at the Crow household. After a decision process years in the making (not exaggerating about that), we bought a new vehicle.

But we didn't accomplish this without a small story to share, which some of you, my friends, are now going to sit through and pretend you care. You will probably even say "Wow" in a comment. Thank you.

I'll try to be brief:

Narrowed choices down to Honda because of the lifetime warranty, the "We will take your grandkids to Disney World and buy them a puppy every year for as long as they live and the United States is a nation." You can't beat those Honda warranties, and I'm sure there is no fine print we missed. So if in 2050 you see adults with Mickey Mouse ears on surrounded by tons of puppies, you'll know Dennis at Honda keeps his word.

• Went to Honda to test drive, one more time, the Element (Oh, how I love the orange) and the CRV, the coolest minivan ever, and yet, still a minivan.

• Good points of Element (if you're me): Lots of room, great panel, rubber on floor instead of carpeting (for those Indiana winters and the slush that ruins car floors), unique "stadium seating" where the back seat passengers sit higher than the front seat passengers, built in cooler, fun to drive, etc.

• Bad points: Clam shell doors that require you to shut the back door first. Back seat passengers can't get out first; fronters have to let them out. Seats four instead of five.

• Bad points of CRV: Yawn.

• I asked Clyde, the first sales guy: "Do you still have the orange Element?" No, they sold it the day before. Color me "Crestfallen Orange."

• Meet Jorge and Lidna. The two most practical people you'll ever meet in the entire world. We decided on the CRV.

• Then came the part of the trade-in, and I realized "This is goodbye to my beloved Camaro." Color me "mad."

• As the paper work starts, I glance up to see a beautiful brand new orange Element drive by the wall-sized glass windows and basically park in front of me. I literally started pointing and saying, "Orange! Orange!" Clyde jumps up and goes out to get the scoop. Yep, just in, brand new, and mighty purty. For about 60 seconds, I was completely confused. Test or sign? Test or sign? Decided "test," and I stuck with CRV decision. Ooh, now I'm double mad because of, excuse me, frickin' test.

• The whole time we signed the bazillion papers to take that CRV with us (By the way, they videotape that part of the transaction. When I asked why, Dennis said "The simplest way to explain it is we want to avoid a McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit." Oh. That clears up everything. (What? Is he going to throw liquid on us if we don't go through with the purchase?!") I kept dreading gathering my stuff out my car and leaving it for the last time.

• Paper work done, we head out to the lot where the CRV is now running and cooling down, but my beloved car is sitting there next to it dying of heat exhaustion. The last thing I heard was the Maroon 5 song over the showroom speakers

It's not over tonight
Give me one more chance to make it right
I may not make it through the night
I won't go home without you

• I didn't want to go home without my little car. But I did, and told myself all the way home, "It's just a piece of metal," to which my alter ego would reply, "Yes, but it's the car Jorge gave you as a fortieth birthday present, and you have loved driving it every day since. It's the reason you learned to drive a stick shift. It's one of your two most valued (really, only 2 possessions of value) possessions. Next you'll be trading in your beautiful, flawless Yamaha piano for a Honda HRX Ultimate lawn mower. Or toaster.

• So the end of an era has come, and although I do not have buyer's remorse because I think we made a good decision, I am still sad. And that is my story, to which I'm sure you're sitting there thinking, "Wow. She is a nut."
  
  Have you ever been emotionally attached to a car before??

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