New car in 2020

Well, not new-new, but new to me! After fourteen years of driving a grey minivan, I am pleased to report that my minivan days are numbered. My new car will be delivered on Sunday afternoon, thanks to Carvana, and I am ridiculously excited!

I only really wanted two things in a new car: first, for it to be smaller (and have better gas mileage) than the damn van, and second, for it to be blue. I was enamored of the look of the 2017 Infiniti QX70 but the same issues kept coming up in my research - namely that the back seat was uncomfortable (and I will have passengers on the regular, at least for the next few years, so their comfort is pretty important to me, especially on long trips), and that the technology felt outdated. Granted, I’ve been driving a 2007 Hyundai minivan with an aftermarket radio/navigation/backup camera, so probably anything would feel like an improvement to me - but added to the fact that Infiniti stopped making the QX70 in 2017 and the blue models are particularly hard to find, I decided it wasn’t worth pursuing that option.

I’ve taken a few roadtrips in recent months (mostly to visit my sister in Florida), so I spend a fair amount of time looking at small SUVs on the road to determine what I want. I discovered that I have expensive taste. The two I liked the look of the most ended up being the Porsche Cayenne and the Jaguar F-Pace, both of which are definitely not in my budget (even taking into account what I’ve been referring to as “dead mom money”, sorry if that’s a bit crass - but I can’t justify the expense of a super luxury SUV even with that). So I kept looking, and finally settled on the 2018 BMW X1. I have a friend who drives an X3, and I knew I wanted something smaller than that, so when I saw the look of the X1 (and how readily available the blue ones are on Carvana) I knew I had my car.

I finished up the paperwork (online) yesterday, and it’s being delivered on Sunday - Carvana really did make it super easy, and the car only has about 20,000 miles on it so it should last me quiet a while! Though I joke that when the kids go to college I am trading it in for a two-seater.

I feel a little ridiculous telling people I bought a BMW, but really it didn’t cost me any more than a brand new Nissan Rogue (which is what I was originally considering) would have been. And it’s so damn pretty, and if I hate it I can call Carvana in the first seven days and trade it for something else…so totally worth it, in my opinion.