Introducing the Mazda 5!

Surprise! We bought a new car over the weekend. Didn't see that one coming, did you?

I've driven a Honda Civic for the past 11 years. First it was the silver two-door coupe. Then the green two-door coupe. And finally, the black four-door coupe. Yep, Honda has been good to me. But with two kids in car seats, our Civic's passenger space was just too limited. We could not bring even one other person along ANYWHERE because a normal-size person just cannot fit between the hulk of two Britax car seats. A few camping trips last summer soon made it clear that our cargo space was also becoming an issue. Indeed, we maxed out our trunk this weekend just bringing the girls to my in-laws for TWO days. Between Ella's bike and Sadie's trike, the double stroller, and the girls' Tinkerbell suitcases, the car was packed to the gills.

There are so many things that are made more difficult by virtue of having kids, and car shopping is one of them. It's not the kind of thing you can bring your kids to do--unless you want to swap their car seats into vehicle after vehicle so you can take things out for a test drive. We'd wanted to look at the Mazda 5 for a long time now. It had everything we were looking for--good gas mileage, third-row seating. You'd actually be surprised to find how few cars have both of these things. If you want a third row, you can basically buy a minivan (boo!) or a gas-guzzling SUV.

Anyhow, after dropping the girls off Saturday morning, we headed over to the Mazda dealership to check out the Mazda 5 in person (I'd already had a chance to check one out at work--just one of the benefits of sharing a building with Consumer Guides), but both Dean and I wanted to drive it. Have you ever seen the Mazda commercials where the little boy says "Zoom-Zoom"? It's true. It's really true. Mazdas are FUN to drive. This car has some serious zip. Beyond that, it has an optional third row. If the rear seats are folded down, we've got what basically amounts to a hatchback--four seats (the second row has two seats separated by an optional flip-up storage console with cup holders) and a whole lot of cargo space. But with the third-row seats flipped into place, we can take two more people (adults -or- kids in car seats) along for the ride. And still have cargo space to boot. Better still, we can flip both the third-row and second-row seats down, yielding a TON of cargo space if we ever needed to move some furniture or, say, pick up a twin mattress and box spring for a little girl who is outgrowing her toddler bed.

Still, we weren't planning to buy one this weekend. We're responsible, practical people who need to labor over a decision this big for at least several months, weighing the pros and cons and pretty much driving ourselves crazy before we take the plunge. The Civic was paid for. It was OURS. Sure, it needed new brakes (probably) and significant body work. And the airbag warning light had been on for months.... But the Civic was ours free and clear.

Well, long story short.... The salesman ran the numbers. Took a look at the Civic. Told us what they'd give us in trade. And pretty much made us an offer we couldn't refuse. But we did refuse it. We are not the kind of people that buy a car in one day of in-person shopping.

Then his manager stepped in. Made us an even better offer. Still, no. We had to think about it. I'm sure you know how the rest of this story goes. They kept adding incentives. But we were smart. We left. We told them we'd maybe be back on Monday.

Went and tested the Honda CRV out. It definitely boasts more cargo space, but the chances of getting a fifth person into it was pretty slim.

We bought the Mazda today. For the record, it is not a minivan. It's a CROSSOVER vehicle. If you've seen the Toyota Matrix, it basically looks like a bigger version of that.

I still can't believe we bought a car today. Ella loves it. Sadie was so terribly confused. She was very excited when we said we'd bought a new car, but she was obviously thinking "toy car" because after seeing the new car, she insisted that wasn't it. Poor Sadie. First Mommy gets her hair all cut off and then we go and buy a new car and make it seem like something she'll be really excited about. Sadie walked around the inside of the Mazda for several minutes, looking ALL over for the promised car.