The Pressure of a Name...

First, a little backstory...

I love my car. I adore my car. My car has taken very good care of me through many crazy nights and long trips (including Atlanta to SF in 2002). I bought it in September 1998 and it was so very appropriate for me seeing as it was Purple. This was my first foray into SUVs as I had been a sedan girl previously. But after years of riding higher in Angie's vehicles (except for the Miata), I knew I wanted this loftier view of the world.

My Jeep, known to his friends as Ingo, went on many road trips, late night Tom Foolery and still managed to get me from home to work or to wherever I was trying to go. I paid him off over a year ago and was really enjoying not having a car payment...then the flood gates opened.

In 2005, I spent what felt like millions of dollars on repairs. No body work or anything, but this was leaking or that needed to be replaced or something or other needed an overhaul...YIKES! And here I was, about to roll over 90,000 miles on my old friend and that means about $1000 worth of service AND I should get the brakes replaced (shoes, drums, whatever). Not the way I wanted to start the new year!

I knew this would be the year to get a new car - I made a deal with my dad when I bought the car (and loved it), that I would not still own it when 100,000 rolled over on the dash. Couple that with the service costs, and that meant it was time. So we started talking cars.

Jeep no longer makes my car (bastards), otherwise this would have been a no-brainer for me. I'm not too keen on the Liberty (really heavy and not enough room inside), but I really like the Grand Cherokee (so would you if you had $28k to drop on a car). So off to Edmunds.com I went.

With the input of every guy at work (no joke), I put together 5 or 6 Compact SUVs to take a look at. I had my favorites, but I wasn't being too vocal about them at this point. Then, up walks my friend Stephanie, who sees that I am not exactly focused on my work. We have a quick chat about cars and I mention the Honda Element, and she pipes up - "Oh, I just bought one of those!" Talk about timing! Stephanie said she would have it at work the next day so I could take a gander.

I LOVE this car! Sitting it Stephanie's Element just sealed the deal. I knew I liked it, I have been interested ever since they released them, but I was never really that fond of the two-toned, plastic trim body I saw around town. Well, they made a change for 2006 - it's called the EX-P (P equals paint). Pretty!

My dad did the leg work for me contacting Internet Car Salesmen to schedule test drives and such and we ended up at Gwinnett Place Honda at 11am yesterday. We met with Joel (the Internet Guy) and we immediately stepped into the Tango Red EX-P I was interested in buying. I tooled around Gwinnett for 20 minutes and put the car to the test. We returned to the dealership and then the fun began (insert sarcastic tone here).

This is why I take my dad car shopping - I don't know how to haggle, and I don't know enough about the process to really be effective. I sit back and listen and throw in my 2 cents when it comes to accessories or the like.

It was a nice experience, but I hate that it takes 5 hours to buy a car. But all said, we got an excellent deal and they took poor Ingo away from me. I almost cried. I know he was just a car, but it is hard when a vehicle treats you right for 7 years and then you just give it away like he were nothing (sniff, sniff).

Enter my new friend, INSERT NAME HERE. That's right, I have yet to come up with a name for my new ride. I am at a loss, really. The last time I was even thinking about a car, I figured I would name him JD (see Scrubs, Tuesdays at 9pm on NBC), but this car is Dark Red, not Scrubs blue.

So HELP! Any suggestions are welcome - in fact, I need some creative ideas to ponder while I roll around town, listening to my iPod or XM Radio (yup, it came with both). Help me out friends - I could really use it. (I'll post a picture in this post later on)!

So welcome to the newest member of the Lindy fleet and I'll just ignore the fact that this means I now have a car payment monthly - ARGH! Everything has a price, right?