Our first big purchase

as a married couple was both exciting (we LOVE the car) and downright scary (car payment? ah!). Thank goodness we had a great salesman (go see Mike at SouthTowne VW) who talked us through the scared silly parts and got us to see that it was worth the purchase - and while I may have thought he was biased at the time - I now completely agree with him even though my heart hadn't been set on a Jetta TDI.

A little bit of background we knew for quite a few months before my parents came back from their mission that we would need to get another car because Jared was driving my parents only working vehicle while they were gone. We had discussed the need for getting a high fuel efficient car because we commute over 60 miles each day to school - yes we didn't really think that through - and we drive up to see our parents in North Salt Lake weekly as well.

So my heart was set upon a Prius which boasts 48/51 MPG and as far as I was concerned we could really use that to lower our gas costs. I did tons of research in the month leading up to my parents coming home and had found a suitable Prius with a good price. After watching Jeff Dunham's skit about Prius's - plus the fact that it isn't a manly car - Jared adamantly refused to drive it if we bought one. So I bargained I would drive it, and Jared could drive my Mazda.


Well needless to say we get to the dealership with the check in hand to pay for it, Jared test drives it and had a little bit of a freak out. I didn't understand until after test driving the Jetta TDI why he was so unhappy with the Prius. When he test drove the Prius in his mind all we would be paying for was the economic statement and an complicated battery and then besides that there was nothing special about this rather pricey car. When I stepped into the Jetta TDI I feel in love with the standard leather interior, seat warmers, automatic window controls on all the windows - not just the drivers, and tons of special safety features. And it still gets 45 MPG and even better the diesel engine is expected to go more than twice as far as a typical gas engine.

In the end I feel like we got a lot more for our money and are so happy with our choice. Even though it was really overwhelming to take on a car payment and become real adults, I wouldn't choose any other car to pay one on. Now every time we see a Prius on the road we laugh to each other that we were actually considering one.

P.S. The dogs love the new car too :)