That New Car Smell

13 Things About DH’s New Camry

He’s been off to London for a conference that didn’t quite happen the way the organizers planned. Apparently the venue doubles as a nightclub on the weekends or something and Scotland Yard was forced to close it for investigations after someone was shot there over the weekend. This was, of course, after everyone coming in for the conference was already en route. So… anyway… I’ve been driving his car all week while my van’s sits at the airport.

Here’s what I’ve found I like about our new Camry so far…

1. It’s a hybrid. It had a full tank 2 weeks ago when we bought it and it’s just below half a tank and has over 200 miles on it. Compared to my van, I fill it up for about $53 a week and go about 150 miles on that 3/4 tank of gas.

2. Not having to dig my keys out of my purse to get in it. You just get close enough to it with the key and you can punch the little button on the door and it unlocks. Ok. There’s times it plays games with me, but I think it’ll be hard to actually lock the keys inside this one.

3. The moon roof. Need I really say more? It’s a lot of fun in the evenings to open everything up and just drive. And all the teachers on the peninsula liked it when I picked David up on Monday.

4. The auto-adjusting mirror for nightvision. Everything looks a funky blue-green at night and first thing in the morning, but I’m not being blinded.

5. There’s still room in the trunk despite having the battery in there too.

6. The gas tank is on the same side as my van, no more guessing!

7. The leather interior. OK. So my van has that too, but it’s not as new and nice smelling.

8. Those funky new headlights. They’re nicer to drive with even if I don’t like seeing them coming towards me.

9. The smoothness of the ride is very nice. The kids don’t even yell when I go over that nasty intersection with the horrible bumps in it.

10. It might be longer than the Saturn, but it’s shorter than my van and is VERY easy to park on MY side of the garage. What? I have to put it back where it belongs? Eep.

11. How quiet it is. It’s very strange to not have to put a key in the ignition and when you push the power button it just turns the lights and accessories on. I had trouble at first telling if it was on or not. At least no horrible screeching if you push the button again. It just quietly turns itself off.

12. The interior dash and navigational system. Ok. So I haven’t really used the nav system, but I’ve used the bluetooth phone and it’s fascinating to watch the energy consumption. The kids like watching were we are on the nav system and get upset when we aren’t traveling by “red line” like Indy.

13. I love the doors on it. They open wide, but don’t slam into the garage wall (Ok, so it’s narrower than the van too). It’s much easier to climb in and out of than the Saturn too — it’s not as low to the ground.

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