While we were originally looking at slightly newer Highlanders, as well as the Subaru Outback, Honda CRV and Pilot and the Mazda CX7 and CX9, Shiny sort of fell into our laps. One of our family friends, P, who had been ill for some time passed away and the person who was going to be buying Shiny had to back out. This left her up for grabs and when P's wife offered her to us, we jumped at the chance to try her out. A hybrid had definitely been outside our price range and although she's an older Hybrid and newer gas models get fairly comparable gas mileage, we both really liked the green factor and low emissions.
Our top priorities for a new car mostly focused around family friendliness. We wanted three rows so that I can transport people and Milou at the same time. A back seat large enough for rear facing car seats without having to move the front seats all the way up. When we're not using the third row, we wanted a nice big trunk to hold all the things I cart around on a daily basis as well as the occasional IKEA purchase and soon, a stroller. It had to get decent gas mileage, not be too big to park, preferably have leather for ease of cleaning and above all be safe and not too expensive. I'll admit that Sydney is quite the fancy, sporty girl and because of that I have gotten used to certain "standards." She's luxurious with lovely extras like butt warmers, steering wheel controls, automatic climate control and a fabulous sunroof. These things definitely weren't necessities, but they would be nice to have.
Shiny met and exceeded all of our expectations with ease, even if she's a little older and has more miles than we were originally looking for. She has three rows with a very respectable trunk when the third is down. Her back seat is super spacious and roomy, it can easily accommodate tall people and car seats, and it has second row air conditioning to keep our passengers and soon to be baby comfortable. Since she has the Limited package, she has all leather interior and power everything including a gorgeous sun roof, back up camera, GPS, bluetooth, and just about every extra you could have added. The trunk even opens and closes automatically which is a cool trick that hasn't gotten old. After driving her for a month, I'm starting to get the hang of parking her and even in traffic conditioners not ideal for a hybrid, she's getting pretty good mileage for an SUV. All in all, I'm absolutely smitten with her and can't wait to bring home baby in her roomy, safe back seat.
