R.I.P Daisy

This is, or rather was, Matt's Pontiac Sunfire named Daisy. Matt bought Daisy in 1998, when he was in college, before we even met. (And isn't he cute in this picture? He was working at the MTC then.) Anyway, Daisy had 130,000 miles and she needed a new transmission, which would have cost more than the car is worth. And we've been wanting something that gets better gas mileage, because although gas has finally dropped below $3/gallon, it's still painful, isn't it? I mean, I've bought gas for less than a dollar, and I am... not that old.

Anyway. So Matt took a day off from work and we went around to all the dealerships. We looked at everything from the Ford Focus to the Chevy Aveo to the Hyundai Accent (we considered one of those but the only one they had in stock was bright green... umm, no) but we settled on the Yaris because it gets ridiculous gas mileage. Like, 34 mpg city... the best you can get short of buying a hybrid. And since it's a Toyota, Betsy will probably drive this car when she's in high school.

It's kind of weird. We've never bought a brand new car before; we've actually had pretty good luck with low-mileage used. On the other hand, we also built a new house last year, so maybe we are becoming snobs? On the other hand, I bought a huge sack of clothes at Goodwill on Saturday, so maybe not.