Making big life decisions...

It's time to get excited!?!? Brandon and I are planning to take our relationship to the next level and make a big purchase within the next few months. For the first time, we'll invest in a new car. This will be the biggest financial commitment we've ever made together.

Those of you that know us well know that we've been driving my old Ford Focus from high school throughout our first year and a half of marriage. Ol' Red (our dear nickname for her) is aging a bit and has quite a few miles to her name (mid 140s). Most of these are highway miles from Brandon's daily commute to work from Athens to Columbus when we lived in Ohio. Needless to say, Ol' Red is starting to experience a few minor issues and doesn't like to go faster than 60 or 65 mph, so we're thinking its about time to replace her.

We've been a one-car family throughout our entire marriage for two reasons - one, it's better for the environment, and two, it's better for our budget. It hasn't always been easy only having one car, but it's something we've gotten used to. However, we're now at a crossroads. We're trying to decide if we should keep Ol' Red for convenience - we're just not sure it's worth it to do so, especially if the maintenance bills continue to rise for her upkeep.

So far, we've narrowed our new car search to three options: the Honda CR-V, the Toyota RAV4, and the Ford Escape. We definitely want a small SUV because we know we'll have this vehicle for the next 7-10 years. Within that time frame we also plan to expand our family - a small SUV will fit a few car-seats nicely :) Here are pictures of the makes/models in the color (black) we're considering:

Toyota RAV4

Honda CR-V

Ford Escape

This past week Brandon and I went to both Honda and Toyota to test drive the respective vehicles. We liked both, but we're leaning more towards the Honda at this point. We planned to go to Ford today, but Nashville had a huge rain storm, so we decided to wait until a nicer day. 

Here's what we need from you: your opinions! As we're inexperienced at buying cars, we welcome any advice from you. We're interested in knowing if you have any insight as to what SUV may be better than another, if you recommend us adding any other SUV makes/models to our search, and if you have any sly tricks regarding negotiating prices. We hope to gain valuable information from you that will help us in our search. In advance, thanks for commenting to share your thoughts!