My wife and I bought a Pontiac Aztek back in '01 when they came out. Loved it for the first two years, and into the third even. Good gas mileage, and plenty of room for when we decided to have our first kid. Cut to the last year of nothing but problems and expenses. That car started f'ing up literally 30 days after the warranty expired. I grew to trully hate that car. I will never buy another Pontiac, and may never buy another domestic vehicle period. Now, the good part. I bought a new car this weekend (well, new to me, it's used) and am loving it. My drive to work was so much nicer, and I actually found myself looking forward to getting to the office and getting right to it. I haven't had such a plearsurable drive to work in ages. I didn't realize how much that old car was affecting me. I was stressed out all the time thinking about how I had to get this part fixed, that part checked out, and what the bottom line was going to be to get it all taken care of. Well, I got the new(ish) one on Saturday, and slept like a baby all weekend. The worst part is that I coulda done this a long time ago, but kept putting off, because I didn't want a high car note. When it was all finally said and done, turns out that I'm paying for the note about what I was paying for repairs on the old car monthly, with the added bonus of getting 25 to 30 mpg.

what the hell kind of car did you get?

Guess I omitted the most important piece of info, I bought me an '04 Mini Cooper. I freakin' love that thing.

haha nice

Even nicer, is I got it for cheap. My wife works at the dealership, and qualified for a discount based on how long the car had been on the lot. The 'S' models tend to move through there pretty quick, but the standard models hang around for a week or two before someone snatches them up. Baby's carrier fits just fine in back seat, but so far the only drawback is I have nowhere for her stroller.

Mini Cooper is my favorite car ever. i stopped fitting in them at age 14

The newer ones have tons of room. Like I said, I can carry my wife, my baby in her carrier and me in there with no problem, and still have room for one more. Of course, I'm not the tallest guy out there (5'10") but I have no problems getting comfy in there. Still, no room for full size stroller. Will rpobably have to get one of those cheap banana strollers that are out there.

I'm pretty anal with cars and I approve of BMW's masterpiece.

I love my Citroen C3, very comfy, great internal space and the engine has the right amount of power for the everyday.

Because it runs off alcohol, your engine will never heat above 160 degrees.

Well, it runs in both alcohol and gas, right now alcohol prices are better, so im using it.

Yeah, I wanted something like that or a Priuss, but I knew I couldn't afford one. This was a complete accident. The car I actually went in to purchase was an '05 Nissan Altima. On the way back in to the showroom I saw the Mini's parked outside and decided to test drive one. Fell in love right away, and for the price I couldn't pass it up. Is Citroen even available in the states? I've only seen them on TV or on the net.

Citroen is quite recent here in Brazil, and i didnt see a single on in Mexico when i went there last september, what is a shame because the frenchies really know how to build a pleasant car.

my 03 Aztek is going strong and its about to hit 90,000

i love that thing, ill never get rid of it.

The plan was to pay it off and keep it for a few years. That wasn't in the cards. It developed some sort of coolant leak that I could never find, and the AC died a couple of times, costing about $600-700 each time to fix. And if you've ever been to TX, you know you can't drive around without an AC for long. Anyway, I think if I had been patient and waited for all of the kinks to get worked out, then bought an '02 or something I probably would feel the same. I absolutely loved that car at the begining. I got it loaded, too. Had the sun roof, 6-disc Pioneer sound system, power everything, after-market chrome wheels, and even the tent attachment. The only thing we didn't get was the leather seats, and the bed. We traded it in right at 82,000 miles. I even peeled my PJ sticker off the back before I let them have it. Congrats on the good buy. Glad there wasn't another person out there burned by the Aztek.

I bought a 2007 Ford Focus on friday. I didn't want to buy another domestic but they had a crazy sale and i got it for about $3500 off the MSRP. It was a base model manual so it was pretty cheap already.

What did you trade in for it? I mean, if you had a trade in. Got a POS car story for us?

Actually, i loved the car that i traded in. It was a 99 Mercury Cougar. It wasn't without it's share of problems (as is to be expected with any 8 year old vehicle) but i only decided to get rid of it because i wanted something new with a warranty that i could rely on. I figured it was getting to the point where it was going to need regular repairs which would be costing me almost as much as a new car payment so i felt that i should let it go while it was still in good shape, had just passed inspection and didn't need any fixes. It'll probably be a long time before i can afford a car this nice again

Nice car. I know what you mean about buying something you like vs something you can afford. The Aztek was our nice car. I was driving an 8 year old Mustang before we bought that thing. I've never owned anything like a Mini before and will probably not have another opportunity to own a car of this quality for a while. Just bought my wife a Jetta two weeks ago as well. Bye, bye house plans. Think we'll be stuck in an apartment for a while longer.