From the Big Apple to the Lone Star State: Traveling in (Green) Style

Now that I have a job (that I will eventually start when HR finishes processing everything), we had to stop being such New Yorkers and get a second car. For the last two months, we've been getting by with one car. Luckily, we live close to hubby's office. He is able to come home for lunch, and it's easy for me to drop him off if I need to use the car. While I'm sure we could have figured out a way to keep on going with only one car, our current SUV didn't make sense as a commuter car. With my soon to be commute, we needed a more fuel efficient car.

Hubby and I had talked about cars before. Even though we lived in the middle of Manhattan, we dreamed of one day making enough money to own a car... and pay for New York City parking. Everything is so compact in the Northeast, and without a car, it felt so far away. In Texas, on the other hand, everything is very spread out, but with a car, it is all achievable... and with a fuel efficient car, it doesn't break the bank. When we had talked about cars, we usually talked about hybrids and new models of cars that not only gave us the fuel efficiency we needed but made us feel better about all the driving we do.

Hubby looked at the hybrids on the market and decided the Prius family provided the best miles per gallon while still being an affordable and viable option. Within the Prius line, we looked specifically at the new compact and the original Prius. Hubby is a tall guy, and after trying out the compact version, we realized it wasn't really much of a choice. The salesperson at the dealership showed us all the bells and whistles of the Prius, which is almost like a giant computer on wheels. We were in love, and given that we had done our research, it wasn't a hard sell. We drove out of the Toyota dealership as proud new car owners.