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Me in my new car!

My husband is an auto mechanic. For the last eight years of marriage, this has meant he periodically finds used cars and tells me what I'm going to drive. I really haven't minded this; in fact, I found it liberating from the worries of auto repair and maintenance, plus no car payments!

But the cars he chose didn't really fit with my personality and lifestyle. I became a mom at age 25; I felt like I was too young then to drive a minivan, and nothing has changed seven years later. (We did have one - but HE drove it!)

So it recently came time to replace that minivan. And I'm completely fed up with trying to fit my bicycle in the back seat of our Lexus LS 400 or hoping the rear-wheel drive sedan will do okay in the snow when I take it skiing.

There were a few cars the hubby mentioned might fit the requirements of being a good family car - but also all-wheel drive for winter ski trips and a car that I could throw a rack on to tow my bike around. I fell in love with the Nissan Murano.

Plus, it comes in that really-trendy-today-and-will-be-horrible-in-the-future coppery orange. But I don't care, because I love the orange! I also love how it feels - it is a small SUV, but it's based on a car (the Altima), so it doesn't drive like a truck. And it came with a totally rockin' sound system, including satellite radio, where I discovered the dubious joys of easily-accessible children's music. (Thank goodness my kids don't like that stuff. I trained them young: alt-pop and The Girl likes hard rock sung by women.)

But the kids love the car! They were totally showing it off to their friends at school.

Now I just have to see how long I can hold out on refusing to let them eat in the car. I give myself two weeks before I give up.

And for the first time in  years, I'll have a car payment. So ask me next month if I'm still so in love!