My Ideal Mom-Mobile

Both Michael and I drive cars that are 1998 models. In the past couple months we dropped a chunk of change for maintenance, upkeep, and repair. Suffice it to say that we are keeping in the back of our minds the very real prospect of having to replace at least one of the vehicles (hopefully not both at the same time!) in the next several years. Since Michael drives a Honda Accord, and they are fabulous cars that keep much of their value, we’re thinking I’m up to get the first new car. And since we have 2 car seats in our future, we’re thinking in terms of a slightly larger vehicle than my little Saturn, but still not quite an SUV. The Mom-mobile.

My all-time ideal mom car: a late 80’s, early 90’s model Jeep Wagoneer. Practical for gas mileage, age maintenance and NOT being an SUV? No. But I love them. They just scream of an open, minimalistic interior, a large back bench seat, tons of space, throw the kids and the crap in the car, bump around, don’t have to be graceful vehicle. Something about that makes me breath happy.

I’m also thinking about the Honda Element, even though I think they look mildly atrocious and very closely resemble a mail truck. Again, there’s something about the open interior that I dig. And the ones that I have been up close to have a completely plastic interior, so in the event of a huge mess you pull the seats out and hose out the car. That quirk makes me smile. If we do go in this direction and I wind up with a car that I already think is mildly obnoxious, I’d have to go all the way and get it in the burnt orange color. But I do really like the charcoal/black, too.

And recently I’ve been noticing the Saturn Vue. My little Saturn has been so good to me that I would love owning another one. Not a bad looking vehicle, I think, but the thing with these smaller, half-SUVs is that they really don’t have much more space than any regular 4-door sedan, so you might as well go for a regular 4-door sedan.

I had also been eyeballing the Outback; we have friends who highly recommend their Vibe (very cool); and Michael’s mom recently got a Honda CR-V, which is nice and roomy and not too bad on the gas mileage. We were even considering a Magnum, which I hated until Michael voiced my exact thought: man’s station wagon. Eeew. Then I liked them.

Who knows. Lots of these are pretty much SUVs anyway. We’ll probably wind up with something I hadn’t even thought of. And that is (keep your fingers crossed) still a couple years down the road…..