After ten years I finally had to say goodbye to my fifteen year old Rodeo! I'd been driving this car since my early twenties. In fact it was only the third car I'd ever had. My first car was an 80 something Chevy Celebrity which I only had for a year or so and my second car was an old, beat up crappy Pontiac Grand Am that I had for around four years. I kept it after I got the Rodeo and hubby drove it for a while before he traded it in for the HHR he has now.
So I'd been driving the Rodeo for ten years. It never bothered me how outdated it was. Heck it had a cassette player that didn't even work the entire time I owned it!! The main thing that bothered me was the blower motor was going out so even though the heat/air worked it didn't blow air unless I kicked the motor under the dash on the passenger side which didn't always work, so that meant lots of trips to work shivering. We got a new blower motor, but didn't have time to replace it. The kicker was when the transmission started going out. I wanted to get another Rodeo because I loved it so much, but I found out they don't make them anymore and after reading reviews I realized that I'd been lucky my Rodeo lasted so long. People had a lot of problems with them apparently.
So after much debate and lots of convincing (because I hate spending money) I decided to get a new car and trade in my Rodeo on it. It would be my first ever brand new car!! I really wanted a Subaru Forester, but they were out of my price range, so I decided to go with a Nissan Rogue because the dealership was having a sale trying to get rid of their 2017 stock. Of course I had to have blue!
Isn't it gorgeous?? I absolutely love this car!!! It's like when I finally caved and got my first smart phone at thirty years old... I never knew what I was missing out on!! This car is awesome!! It has tan interior and although I'm not a fan of light interiors it has grown on me and it is much cooler.
The greatest thing ever about this car is that when I'm driving and I get a text message I can hit the little answer phone button on my steering wheel and it will read my text out loud to me, then it sends a response back saying I'm driving, so I never have to take my hands off the wheel or look away from the road and the person texting me knows not to expect a response since I'm driving. It is awesome!
It has blue tooth so I gave my hands free device to hubby for his car. The only thing I never liked about the cars that use the speakers to talk on the phone is that people can hear what the person is saying outside the car unless you have it turned way down (which I don't because I'm deaf). It's okay though because when you're driving no one can hear and I just don't use it when sitting in the parking lot at work.
One of the main reasons I chose the Rogue is because it has a lot of storage space in the back. It's equivalent or better than what the Rodeo had. Heck I use my car as my tack room (literally I store my saddles and tack in my car) so I needed plenty of room lol. It also gets great gas mileage. Because my Rodeo had some problems I was spending almost $100 a month on gas. Now one tank of gas lasts a whole month in my new car!!
So now that I have a new car all of a sudden things that never bothered me before are bothering me now. Like.....
The cats on my car!!!!! It never bothered me with the Rodeo (pictured above), but it bothers me with the new car. I never cared about having a clean car before, but I like for the gorgeous metallic blue Rogue to be clean.... sigh. Any suggestions?? I wish I had a garage lol. Someone suggested spraying them with a water hose, but I'd have to spend the entire day out there and I'm afraid they will scratch it when they launch themselves off of it. Oh well, the Rogue can't stay perfect forever. I plan on having it for 10+ years too. It was so funny the car dealer's expression when I told him I'd had the Rodeo for ten years. He said most people rarely keep cars for more than five. Heck some of my coworkers trade out their cars every year or every other year.
Anyway I've rambled enough. I just wanted to share since I'm excited and you'll probably start seeing the Rogue in pictures after seeing the Rodeo in them for ten years.
That metallic blue is my favorite color for cars too. Every time I buy a new vehicle, though, they don't have that color available in what I want, so we just keep buying shades of burgundy, which is my second favorite color for cars. My husband used to trade his cars in every couple of years because he didn't like them, but then we'd get upside down on our payments. We'd be making payments on two cars, yet only have one. So, I bought him an expensive luxury car when the dealership was trying to get last year's vehicles off the lot and when car companies were going bankrupt, and he recently topped 100,000 miles in that thing. He's had it for 8 years. It's the first car he's kept for a decent amount of time. I think when you upgrade less often, you tend to appreciate new features more. I didn't know that cars can answer text messages like that. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool that we have the same favorite color in cars. :D I'm glad you found a vehicle that your husband liked enough to keep for so long. My husband got his HHR in 2010 so he's had his a while and plans to keep it as long as it will run. I'm lucky he knows how to work on them to keep them going as long as possible. I am just way to cheap to keep spending money on something that there is nothing wrong with it. I have coworkers who have gotten upside down in their payments too. That's scary!! I'm glad you were able to get out of the situation. I definitely do appreciate the features of this new car so much more after driving the Rodeo so long. The funny thing is that this car is the basic!! It doesn't have all the bells and whistles and it's still an amazing upgrade for me because my car was so outdated lol!!
DeleteThere's a lot to be said for keeping a vehicle for longer than it takes to pay for it - those people who trade up every few years are suckers (jmho) to have a perpetual car payment.
ReplyDeleteMr Shoes top of the line, loaded Passat we bought 2 years old & it now has over 500,000 klicks and still running like a top. Rambo, my 1999 Dodge Ram, has 300,000 or there-abouts. We plan to drive them into the dust, as every vehicle we've ever owned, and save all that money.
Yeah I'm too much of a penny pincher to keep trading up. I drive my cars until they fall apart basically. The only reason I traded at this point is because I knew if the transmission went out I would be in a really bad place!!!! I also don't drive much. I only had 180000 miles on the Rodeo. I only paid 3000 for it and it lasted 10 years though so I'm not complaining!!! It's not like it was ever considered a top of the line vehicle. I'm glad your vehicles are holding up well. :)
Deletep.s. But, your new car is cool & pretty, and after 10 years of the Rodeo, I think you did just fine picking yourself a new one. The worst part of having a brand new car is that first inevitable ding mark - Good luck keeping the cats off it.
ReplyDeleteHehe yeah the day I got it home there were scratch marks on one side. I'll probably bring it up to the dealership because it obviously happened on the lot before I bought it. Other than that I'm not normally the type who freaks out about every little ding. As long as it's only cosmetic it's no big deal. I will admit that I'm leery about the cat claws and I'm wanting to wash it a lot more often than the Rodeo (although I haven't yet, I cringe when I see all the leaves and pollen on it). It's funny how having something new and expensive makes you want to take better care of it. :) It's been two weeks... I wonder how long I can make it before I wash it lol!
DeleteI love blue vehicles as well, which is why my truck is blue :D We drive all of our cars until they are no longer usable, our first car was a 2003 Civic and it is still my daily driver at 190k miles. Just keep the maintenance up on it and it should last forever!
ReplyDeleteExactly! I'm surprised how many of us like blue vehicles. They don't seem very common out on the roads. :) That's great about your Civic! I hope it keeps trucking along for many more years.
DeleteYay for new car!! When we were on the hunt for a new to us vehicle, we looked at a Rogue. I really liked it but the year model had some mechanical issues so we ended up getting an 2011 Sorento and I love it! 3rd row seating is what sealed the deal for me. Congrats on the new car again!
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