Out with the old...

 This week we sold Stacey's trusty Honda CR-V to a friend of my sister's, and then bought a new-to-us Hyundai SUV with room for the whole family, plus grandparents.

It all happened rather suddenly...

We've been thinking of an SUV with a third-row for the last several years, as it would be really handy when Sue and Gord are with us.

A few weeks ago, we realized our "car savings account," which we've slowly added to since buying my Pontiac in summer 2006, might afford us a larger car.

We mentioned to Melanie that we might be willing to sell Stace's car, which he bought shortly after moving here in 2003. She had a friend who needed a reliable car and had the cash. Only thing was, she was ready to buy his car immediately.

We did our research on what we were looking for, and had decided on a Honda Pilot. Uncle Bill came down to help Stacey look over a vehicle in Irvine, but they knew as soon as they saw it Sunday that it wouldn't do.

On Sunday night, we found this Hyundai Veracruz online, at a Volvo dealership in Orange County. It's a 2007 with 51,000 miles, and a little Internet research showed us that it was priced well below its Kelley Blue Book value, and even below the price the dealership likely gave its owners when they traded it in.

On Tuesday morning we completed the sale of Stacey's car, and at lunchtime we made a trip to the local Hyundai dealership to check out a new Veracruz, to make sure we liked it. It's not a very well-known car, and Hyundai stopped making them for 2013.

But we loved what we saw, and on Wednesday we made the long drive to Santa Ana to check out the car.
We knew it was the car for us; it's much more luxurious than we're used to, and seems to have all the features we were looking for (and then some).

The price was outstanding, leaving us with a bit of money to save toward a replacement for the Vibe, which Stace will now drive.

It's amazing the way things work out sometimes. We are blessed and thankful.