Looking for a new car is hard work.

I've had my car since I was 15 years old.
2001 Mitsubishi Mirage, manual, two door little coup.
Gets anywhere from 30 - 40 miles per gallon, and she gets up and goes.
It's never had any problems at all, except for a few general maintenance things here and there.
With a 165,000 miles on it, my car has had a good life and still has a good while to go.
My car has been my baby.
Last February, some dumb girl hit my car while backing up with her big ol' Ford.
I cried.
I mean, it's just a car and no I wasn't injured, but it's my car.
Because it was in a bank parking lot (cops won't come if it's private property), and because it was my first time ever dealing with an accident (so I didn't really know what to do - what information to gather - how mad I should get), and because the girl was being real sketchy (pretty sure she didn't have insurance), she got away with it and my car's had a big dent in the left side ever since.

So WHY am I blogging about this?

Because my car is an essential part of our life. If my car was to die from "old age" or get damaged in an accident, Trev and I would have a really hard time going about our lives. We have different schedules with work and school, and we each like our independence of not having to rely on each other for a ride. I don't know how one car families do it!

As much as I love my car, I'm ready for a new car. With Trev's new job plus my job plus our savings account, we could afford to take out a car loan and make monthly payments. The words "car loan" make me me shudder too, but it's a good way to build up credit, especially if we want to buy a house someday. Besides, in this economy it's kind of hard to put down $14,000 cash on a car.

All of the cars we've been looking at are newer models (we're talking 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 models, people!) and each car has great reviews, pros, and cons. They're cars that get some seriously awesome gas mileage, which is great because we like to travel up North and to San Diego. We've even test-drove a couple of these cars, and we love the way the ride and how they look on the inside. And even though they're deemed newer models, the cars we're looking at come with a great price tag attached. So what are our car options right now that we're thinking of?

An orange 2013 Chevy Sonic

(Yes, an orange car. Does that really surprise anyone?)

A celestial blue 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage

A 2011 Mazda 3

So yes, instead of having a baby like several of our friends, we're getting a new car as long as things keep going well for us. Which one, I don't know yet. All three of these are great cars. I might be leaning more towards the Chevy Sonic... But now how the heck am I supposed to pick only one? Being an adult with money and wanting to buy pretty, new things is hard. ;)