Goodbye Stratus.

*salutes*

We bought a new car this week, a 2007 Ford Edge. We traded my 2000 Stratus in as part of the deal. While the Stratus wasn’t my first car (that honor goes to a white Pontiac, similar to this one). The Pontiac was called the “Gooley” because the “6000LE” on the side looked like a “Gooole.” I had that car from my junior year of highschool to junior year of college.

The Stratus has been with me since 2006, faithfully chugging along (with a little repair help from Andy). Towards the end of its life though, repairs were becoming a monthly expense and it was just getting to not be worth Andy’s time or our money to fix. The check engine light had been on for months too. Andy knew what the problem was (it wasn’t something too serious) but again wasn’t really worth the money to fix if we were going to get a new car. The Stratus had never been really good in winter, without fail I’d always end up in a ditch or sliding around even if I was going very slowly. It didn’t have anti lock breaks and the AC had died in the past few years. I didn’t so much mind the lack of AC, but I did feel pretty bad for Ben who was a hot sweaty mess every time we drove somewhere in the summer. In fact, for our memorable last ride to the dealership it was a balmy 96…so the Stratus definitely went off with a bang.

The Gooley was a hand-me-down from my dad (I think your first car should always be a clunker). I bought the Stratus from my stepdad for a few thousand. And the Edge, well, it cost a bit more than that but it’s the first “adult” vehicle I’ve picked out. It’s actually the Edge SEL Plus, meaning it comes with a bunch of extra features that I really don’t need…but the price and mileage were right. We were driving home from the dealership and Andy was pointing out all the features to me and showing me the knobs and buttons and I had to say “Andy, can I just drive home without killing us and THEN you can show me all the things it does.” In reply, he turned on the heated seats (remember, it was 96 out) and I couldn’t do a thing about it because I had no clue where the button was ;-)

I’d actually been looking on craigslist and fell in love with an orange Edge, but the guy sold it before we had a chance to look at it :( Guess it wasn’t meant to be. We bought our black Edge from Genesee Valley Ford in Lima if anyone’s interested. Pleasant experience (as far as car shopping goes). No pushy salesmen and very helpful with a few little hiccups we encountered along the way. Although I think our salesman found us a little awkward (he didn’t really get our jokes…)

I love Ford’s design on the vehicle, the bold lines and for a lack of a better word “edgy” body. I never really looked at it this way before, in the past I always just had a car to get me from point A to point B. I still can’t judge how big it is or where I am in space yet. Of course my lack of 3d vision doesn’t really help this, but I’ll get used to him soon. Yes, I’ve decided it is a gentleman SUV (or cross over I guess, CUV). I think his name is going to be Scotty. As in “Beam me up Scotty” because it’s so easy to accelerate and zoom along.

Dealer stock photos (because I haven’t gotten to it yet):