when it's not one thing it's another

Well,

The mother in law saga has improved considerably. I'll have to give all the credit to her as well. She talked to my wife and pretty much had laid out (on paper even) all the things that she has been doing bad that have contributed to a very stressful situation. And she held her tounge and didn't make a huge arguement out of anything, and then asked my wife is she thought that they should leave.

Wife agreed, and her husband was looking for a place for them up in NY right now. So all the tension has been diffused. Yes she still does lots of annoying things, but it's liveable knowing that she is going to be leaving on good terms.

BUT!!! And there is always a but, things seem to be dragging on them finding a new place. Wife started to get annoyed again at all the little shit. They talked again and the plan is that come Dec 1 whether their house is done or not they are leaving.

I guess I can deal with that. Wife also said that sometimes we just DON'T WANT TO TALK. We are tired from work, and the kids and we just want to chill and the last thing I want to do is get into some discussion with the woman on some topic she thinks she is an intelectual about.

But now that that is done with, there is always other things to deal with. Like we are looking at getting a new car. Talk about a drain on time and being stressful.

I research things to lots of detail, and am always stressed when it comes to dealing with salesmen and the negotiating process.

So far we are leaning towards a mid sized /small sized SUV. We have a 98 Legacy wagon totally base model, not even auto door locks. love the car for the most part but the clutch just went and it has 82k on it. Sadly, vehicles like this hold crap for value. I think we could sell it for $3000 if we were lucky, but it is really a fun nice solid car.

This new vehicle we are looking for is going to cost anywhere from $17 to $26k depending on what we get and if we go new or used.

Sadly, I came to the conclusion to sell my current truck and take over the subaru. Mainly because the truck is a 4x4 extended cab and it hold much more value than the car. the reality is, that we got it because I missed having a truck. Got it from a friend for $12k. 1999 Dodge Dakota 4x4 extended cab and he put all sorts of mods.--Headers, cat back exhaust, mod chip, off road tires, grill guard, big Dodge Ram mirrors, and I put in a spray in bed liner. It is a nice truck....LOUD as shit.

but you know I'm a small guy. It is nice to roll around in a big loud truck. Get's me some stares. I've got a short torso, so I actually look pretty stupid in it!. Wife looks hot, petite girl in big loud truck= schwing.

Anyway, I will be giving up some of my manhood to make this new car purchase more easy to deal with.

We have two boys and lots of stuff, they are growing, and the current wagon is a tight squeeze to get a 5th person in between their car seats, and the cargo room is maxed on trips. So we want something bigger.

But I get fundamentally torn over the American way of huge SUVs to go to the grocery store.

And the wife REFUSES to consider a mini van. They are Not cool. If we had 3 kids she'd probably do it. But her 40 year old mid life crisis is calling for an Xterra or other SUV.

But giving up the gas guzzling loud ass truck makes me more able to deal with getting an SUV. But like I said I am torn, because driving some of them I love how nice they actually are.

We've driven
-Honda Pilot(overpriced-ok), CRV(POS, felt cheap, overpriced for what u get)
-looked at Sante Fe (tiny cargo area)
-Driven Toyota Highlander (over priced, helicopter affect when driving with rear windows only open-enough to make my ears hurt, light colored interior cloth just begging for juice stains, but otherwise very nice, easy to drive good visibility)
-Mitsubishi Endeavor (best value, good engine, tons of storage space around driver/passenger, great cargo room, good room in back seat, funky stereo console)
-Xterra(fun, good exterior styling, pitiful storage area around driver, weak interior styling, excellent cargo room, lots of aftermarket accessories, crappy gas mileage like them all, they we trying to get rid of 04's before the 05 redesign due out in January)
-05 pathfinder (WOW, incredible redesign, tons or room, 3rd row seating, sweet engine, looks bad ass, can you tell I like it. It's also expensive and there are no rebates on this 05)
-04 Cherokee (crap!, they had to jump start the battery because it had been sitting idle for so long. It felt loosey goosey even when going straight. Jeep is offereing something like $5000 off sticker. No thanks)
-looked at outback and forester (Really LOVE the new interior styling, makes them very snazzy. But they are just a tad on the small side. Plus we already have a 98 legacy, and wife thinks it's wierd to have the another of the same vehicle. Regardless, I'd buy another in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the size issues we'd run into.)
- I get Gm supplier pricing but we are not considering the Trailblazer or Envoy because they just 'seem' too big and the GM reliability is questionable to me.

So far the wife LOVES the xterra. I am quite impressed with the cargo room, as much as the 04 pathfinder and as big as any of the other mid sized we looked at. She sits real well in the seats and has great visibility which she is just so happy about.

I loved the 05 pathfinder, blew the pilot away IMHO. It is on the big side though. Do we really need something that big?????????

The 04 Endeavor is to me the sleeper value. A used one with 10k miles lists for like $10k or more below sticker. For whatever reason it takes a huge hit the first year, where a used Highlander or Pilot is almost as expensive as a new one. Wife doesn't like the seating and her visibility.

So it comes down to spending a lot on the pathfinder or spending a lot on an exterra

Oh well, it's only money as they say!!!

Just started the hypertrophy phase of my lifting, more details to come.

cya