The Brad Hole

Beth and I have recently decided to make some car changes. Right now, we've got the Jag, the Stang and the Accord, which isn't really very practical. The Stang is long-since paid off and still runs fine, but isn't worth much in trade-in value and needs some brake work before we could get rid of it. So it'll probably stay. The Jag is definitely not paid off and carries quite a bit of value, so it'll likely go, but the loan is currently "upside-down" as they say. The Accord is in great shape, and the remainder of the loan is a lot less than the value (trade-in or resale) of the car. It's also a standard, which I can't drive. The ultimate goal is to get us down to 2 vehicles - a car and an SUV. My driving needs are pretty modest, since I work out of the house, so the likely scenario seems to be keeping the Stang, possibly the Accord as well and ditching the Jag. I love the Jag, but there's no realistic way to keep it and buy an SUV and still eat on a regular basis.

We've started the SUV hunt, and we've narrowed it down to 2 likely candidates: the Toyota 4Runner and the Acura MDX. Beth is head-over-heels in love with the 4Runner and why not? It looks great on the outside and carries a lot of bang for the buck. The only downside (as I see it) is the pretty sucky console UI that houses the air conditioning and radio controls. The Acura, on the other hand, has an extraordinary interior design and UI, is highly rated in just about every SUV comparison test, and has a very smooth ride. The downside is that it looks (and to some degree, performs) like a "Soccer Mom" SUV. Still, it's not like we're going to be towing boats into the mountains any time soon.