Brian was an eager beaver to get a car immediately when we arrived. I am not kidding… we were at the dealer the afternoon we arrived. There was a rental car shortage because we’re coming out of COVID and the rentals were all sold to keep companies afloat. People were renting UHauls to get around. Brian was very adamant he have a car and the Venza was still on its way.

This was the first car either of us bought brand new from the dealer. I think it had 46 miles on it. It’s basically the hybrid version of the Civic. We both really like it, although I still feel Toyota does a lot of the little things better. I was not a fan of the prius, though. We went with new because we are in a great financial position, but it took a lot for me to be persuaded. There were a lot of costs tacked on that I now understand why people sell cars used for a higher price than MSRP. I also think Honda is worse about that than Toyota. (We would have to pay extra for parking sensors.) Brian is using it as a commuter car and he loves not having to gas up often. I convinced him to buy the highest trim because my Venza has the highest trim and it still feels like it’s a new car even though it’s a 2012. And also I can’t live without heated seats should we live somewhere cold again. He then decided to take a loan on it. I am personally VERY anti debt. It’s a low interest rate, we can invest the money, yeah I understand that financially a loan probably makes sense. But when we go to ship it again, we need to get special permission from our bank. Also it’s one more payment to keep track of. What’s funny is Honda keeps messing up the paperwork for all this, and I have to bear the brunt and I kindly remind Brian all the time this would be a non issue if we had just paid the dang thing off. But, such is marriage and such is compromise. I think we’ll end up paying it off before we leave the island anyway.

We had the option of Navy Blue or Fire Red. We both agreed the fire red looked nicer. It’s getting a nice addition of a rainbow license plate sometime. I am choosing to get the volcano one for the Venza. How many states am I going to live in that I can get a VOLCANO on my license plate??