Talking about getting another vehicle got me thinking about all the vehicles we've had over the years. I would have preferred to just stick with one car, but I didn't marry a guy with that "drive a car into the ground" mentality. He always has some excuse why he has to get something else. I know I'm going to miss one or two along the way, but let's see how many vehicles I can name, and the order in which we had them:

As a single girl, I owned a charcoal grey 1981 Mazda RX7 (bought used, but in excellent condition). I loved that car and foolishly sold it for money to pay for our honeymoon. (I should have seen the handwriting on the wall. LOL)

As a single guy, he owned a brand-new red 1984 Toyota 4x4. He had just made the final payment, we were engaged at the time, and decided to trade it in on a new truck (blue 1989 Toyota 4x4), in which he put $1,000 on a credit card and took the remaining out in a five-year loan. (Again, I should have seen the handwriting on the wall.) I did want to kill him, but reasoned we weren't married yet, so I couldn't intervene with his decision. (What was I thinking?!)

In place of my hot RX7, we bought a used 1984 Chev Cavalier. (An absolute piece of junk. I could have killed him.) The pattern started to emerge right at the beginning... and I was either blind or brainwashed or something. Just don't say it was love -- I'll have to hunt you down and hit you! LOL

The 1989 Toyota remained with us for 15 years. But, the list of cars I drove is ridiculous. Watch:

1984 Chev Cavalier (rust bucket) sold to his brother for $200 less than the asking price. His wife drove it for a while and they sold it for $200 over what he paid for it. (In other words, my husband should have sold it for that price. It was obviously a fair price.) Note to husband: Don't SELL a vehicle to a family member.

1984 Mercury Cougar (rust bucket) bought from his father. What a piece of junk. Ridiculously high mileage. Driver's bucket seat BROKEN. And after paying full asking price for it, we had to replace four worn tires -- that was expensive. Note to husband: Don't BUY a vehicle from a family member.

Think we junked that Cougar and picked up another 1984 Mercury Cougar cheap. This one actually made us money because my husband got hit two separate times. Car wasn't worth fixing - so we pocketed the small insurance payouts and drove it with a few dents.

Junked that Cougar when my husband was finally able to lease a 1988 Saab through the company he was working for. (had to wait until the points for speeding tickets were taken off his license) Wow. Now you think we hit the big time driving a brand new Saab around, right? Not so. When it came time to buy it, or turn it in, we did buy it -- but, the ball joint went. Fortunately, it was covered under warranty. If it hadn't been, we were looking at a $1,300 bill. I told him we couldn't afford the maintenance on it, which we truly couldn't.

Sold the Saab and bought a 1986 RX7. This one was in great condition, with very low mileage. It was the owner's joyriding car -- always garaged and brought out on the weekends. He was selling it because he was getting married (hhmmm.... sound familiar? What is wrong with us RX7 owners?! LOL) I always feel my husband had a guilty conscience all those years after I sold mine for a honeymoon trip.

The RX7 promptly got stolen (!!!!!) and the insurance company totaled it. We took that money and used it as a down payment on a leased 1994 GMC Jimmy. The decision for a Jimmy came about because, at this point, I wanted a 4-wheel drive vehicle. The Connecticut winters were getting to me. The only drawback -- it was an automatic. I feel safer in the snow with a manual transmission. Is that in my head or do you really have better control?

The transmission blew in the thing. Fortunately, it blew right before the lease was up. Usually, the way our luck runs, it would have blown after we purchased it. Needless to say, we didn't purchase it and turned it in when the lease was up. Warranty took care of that fiasco, too.

So, now what vehicle do we get? My husband talked me into a 1997 Nissan Maxima. I insisted it be a stick shift! We leased this one, too. Honestly, I never really liked it. It just wasn't me. We had such good luck with his Toyota 4x4 (remember that one -- we've had this whole time!), we decided to look into another Toyota. By now, they came out with 4-runners. My husband nearly choked on the sticker prices. So, we "downsized" from that dream and started looking at the smaller SUVs. We looked at the Toyota Rav4, but the salesman ticked me off. So, we bought a 1998 Honda CRV. The car I am still driving today.

So, you think that's it? Oh no. Just wait. The Toyota 4x4 was garaged a lot of the time because my husband eventually moved up in jobs and had company vehicles. But, when he took an "inside" job when we moved to Indianapolis, he had to hand the company vehicle in. By now, the Toyota was getting old. Still ran like new, but he "needed" a new car. Afterall, he was an "executive" now and needed a nice car to drive to work.

So, he bought a 2004 Chrysler 300M. That car didn't last a year. It had a transmission leak, and it never really got fixed right. Besides, the Toyota's air conditioner now went and he was going to have to start dumping major money into it, so he decided to sell the Toyota 4x4 and the 300M and buy a big truck. The truck we bought, a 2002 Chev Z71 extended cab, rode like a car yet he could use for hauling lumber, brush, or what have you.

Still not done. Last year, when we move into our house here, we discover the Chev truck would not fit in the garage. Funny, we never noticed that every house with an extended cab truck has it parked in the driveway!

So, that got traded in for a 2005 Chev Colorado extended cab. But, that's the one with the fresh road rash. Like I said in the other post, time to get a new one....