new car!!

No pictures yet, but they're on the way eventually!

On Saturday of last week we finally got a new car. A new old car. It's a 2006 Toyota Avalon. Our last car, the 2001 Oldsmobile, ended up needing like a zillion bucks in repairs in order to pass inspection next month, so we had to get a new car. It was kind of sad, because if we didn't live in a nanny state, we probably could have gotten another year or two out of the car. But of course, we live in tyrannical Maryland, so, there we go. New car time it was.

We're pleased with our Avalon purchase. It has tons of room in the back, so if we ever need to put more than one carseat back there, that'll be fine. It drives really smoothly and is basically just a good, reliable, old person car. Everyone I tell about it is like, "oh! My grandparents have that SAME CAR!"

Yep.

When we drove it home from the dealer, we parked it in our garage and Carl wondered if the front right tire was a little low. I said no, of course it wasn't, because our crappy Oldsmobile always had low air in that tire--it was probably all just in our heads because we were used to that from our old car.

On Thursday, so five days after I bought it, I drove up to Urbana for a hair cut and to visit my mom. On the way, I got THREE (3) flats. On 270.

So, drama. I only discovered this as I left--I've never had a flat before, so I just thought our car was being retarded. I legitimately didn't get it, until I was on my way home driving super slowly to Subway for lunch, and people watching me started freaking out--"hey lady! Hey lady! All your tires are flat!"

So I drove at 10 mph with my baby screaming in the backseat to the closest auto shop, where I promptly had a breakdown and just wept in their lobby. I had to be home in an hour to get my severely disabled brother off the bus, and it was a new car, and my baby was crazy. The repair guys took pity on my poor self and inspected the car, pronouncing it the strangest thing they'd ever seen--only three tires were flat, and for no obvious reason. Why not all four? What the heck?

So I ended up calling a tow, and hitching a ride home with my sister. It turned out that the dealer had put on all new tires when they acquired the car--and the tires had faulty valves. Well, three of them did. So they were slowly leaking until at last, they all went out on me essentially at once on the freeway. The dealer replaced all the tires for free and we got the car back last night.

It's been a fun time with the new car, but hopefully that was the last of the car's issues for a while.