High Expectations

Exactly 8 years ago JJ and I spent many evenings walking around car lots in UT county. His car had died that summer in St. Louis and he needed something to replace it. We were still in the early staged in our dating life and so I was just there for fun and to spend time with him when I got off work. I did think it was funny that he cared so much what I thought about the kind of car he would get. He was excited to get a good deal on this Honda Accord and at the time almost seemed like such a splurge to get. It was such a nice car and he wasn't sure he needed something that nice to just get him around town while going to school.

We then of course got married and later down the road decided to sell my Honda Civic, it was worth more and was only a 2 door. We then adopted my parents old Isuzu Trooper which JJ drove to and from work. We were glad to have the accord, still such a nice car. While living in UT we must have had a target painted somewhere on our car because it seemed we could only go about 6-9 months without getting in a car accident. Almost every piece of this car has been replaced except the hood, the top and the trunk. At one point we had a whole new paint job done on it. Luckily none of the car accidents were our fault. We came close to totalling it at one time right after paying off the car. We were disappointed to hear that we may be put back into a car payment which we didn't want. We were needing to save money for our big move to optometry school. Luckily we were about $200 shy of totalling the car.

All this time we have been so lucky to have such a reliable car to drive. We have been great owners of this car, always right on time with oil changes and other necessary replacements as the car has gotten older. I all along have thought--yep it is a Honda and we will drive this car into the ground! I have high expectations for things and purchasing a Honda comes with some expectations.

This past month we have had several problems with the car. We have had a hard time deciding if now is the time to part with the car or do we put money (which we don't have) into the car hoping that it will keep our goal of just driving it into the ground? We had it on craigslist a little over a week ago and got several emails for it and an offer we almost took. We just didn't think we would be able to find anything with the little money we have to buy another car. We would not be able to keep our high expectations with a replacement car we would be able to purchase. We just didn't feel good about selling the car. So we decided to keep the car and have the work done to make it new. Making it new is costing us, we are having a new engine put in, a new clutch and a couple other new parts. The new engine is low on mileage and we hope that we will now be able to keep this car for a long time like we have planned.

Like all things with expectations sometimes you are disappointed. Even with the start of a new school year we started with expectations and this one has started off with several struggles for us. Money is always a stressful thing, especially when you are tight on it. Being a student you only get what they give you each semester and you just have to make it work. Luckily we are feeling okay with the decisions we have made and we just know that somehow it will work out. Our car has been in the shop all week getting a "face lift" and we look forward to getting it back when it is finished. I have been doing a lot of driving this week taking everyone to school and work and picking them all back up. It has thrown my routine for a loop and I will be happy to have things return to normal next week. I sure feel a whole lot busier doing all this driving. Who knows--we may feel like we have a whole new car when we get it back and that might just be because we practically do!