Welcome to 37 MPG

I got my Focus yesterday! Love it, love it. It's much smaller than the Five-Hundred it replaces, but also much tighter and way better looking.

Heather: "You have a car with COLOR now!!!"

And despite the 33 MPG rating for highway, and the fact that it's not broken in yet, I just got 37 MPG on my way to work today. In mixed driving! That's a number I can live with. And the whole thing, loaded up and taxed out, was less than $20 grand.

The Bluetooth phone integration is my favorite thing...I can now fully appear to other drivers to be talking to myself in this car.

It's very spunky for a 2.0L 4-banger too. It's not going to come close to my Mustangs of yesteryear, but this is a new car for a new era in my life.

All around, I think I made a good choice, especially in the land of stratospheric gas prices. I like seeing: "450 miles to empty".

And the 7-color ambient lighting is way cool.

Re-Focusing

Ahh, gone are the wonderful days of the V8 Mustang, a distant memory. The current gas situation combined with my high-mileage driving loops have finally stuck me in the back to the point of surrender. I ordered my new car the other day, and this one was chosen for its MPG, not its BHP.

It's a Focus, four-banger, and it gets 33 MPG. This alone will save us over $100 a month. But it's also an inexpensive car, and the payment is another $150 reduction over the bulky, driveway-colored Five-Hundred.

Zach loves blue and I have been promising to get our next car in his favorite color. So Vista Blue it is. I even splurged on Auto Trans so HB can drive it and multi-colored mood lighting so I can feel just a little bit funky while I putt down the street saving gas.

Incidentally, I have decided to do an occasional series of posts on cars that I have owned in my life. Cars are such a big part of Americana, they are very well integrated into our lives, almost like family. I want to remember some of the quirks and good times I've had with cars. Watch for the first one soon.