So we met up with a salesman, Mark, who reminded us of our pal Joe back in SoCal. We liked him immediately. We first had our eyes set on a used 2008 Toureg, but it turned out to be WAY too expensive for our taste. We wanted to look at other options and started to make our way down towards the Routan’s (VW’s mini van) and Katie started to lose it! She kept squeezing my hand and shaking her head… but I’m not getting it. I was warm on the idea, she wasn’t, so we moved on. Maybe after the second kid is born we’ll explore the mini van option, but until then, we’ll stick with the SUV range!

We finally made our way to Tiguan country, VW’s mini SUV line. Katie and I both were very fond of the Tiguan SE Wolfsburg Edition and started to wheel and deal. We couldn’t reach an agreement on Friday, so we left having no intention of pursuing a deal any further. We still had a very low mileage Jetta that was in great shape, nothing lost.

The next morning we go in for service and are met by the sales manager and finance manager as soon as we walk in the door. Before service begins, they want one last chance to see if we can strike a deal. For 30+ minutes options are thrown at us but until they can make a deal fit within our parameters, it isn’t going to happen. In the end, the sales manager works out a deal that not only puts our monthly payments below target, but also nets us a healthy amount for our trade in.

While the Tiguan (yet to be named by Katie) is being prepped, we said good bye to our reliable Jetta “Gretta”, cleaned her up and wished her luck with her new owner. We grew very attached to the Jetta, I mean it’s the car we drove to get married in. The vast majority of our Disneyland trips were made in her. Yes, we know it’s just a car but she’s been such a big part of our life.

Under $20 for a full tank

This morning I traveled down to the Shell station of Lyons avenue and saw what I thought was an error, 87 octane for $1.69. This Shell station is always the lowest on our side of town and this morning they didn’t disappoint! When I first moved to LA, gas was around $1.65/gal and that was back in ’01. When I was in high school, it was $1.25… if it ever hits that low again, I will seriously consider making my classic car a daily driver.