EPTI sold that car, shortly after having gained gainful employment with a company in downtown Minneapolis; this change in employers meant I was no longer beholden to the major highways and byways of modern America to get to my place of employment. For a mere 30 dollars a month, I can bus into the office and back in no uncertain terms. My girlfriend and sometime future wife, hopefully, however, still commutes more than 20 miles to her job in the outer suburbs of Minneapolis.
Her 1999 VW Passat died on her less than a year ago, shortly thereafter, following a week long stint of borrowing cars and while she was presumably under the gun to procure a mode of transport that would get from A to B, she turned up at our home in a 2005 Dodge Stratus.
SNL skit mess aside, I tried to make the best of a cumbersome situation. The car was... temperamental, though it made it through the Summer mostly problem free. As the Minnesota Fall and Winter mixed the car started to show its demons. Part after part failed, and we piece-mailed our way through repairs until ultimately we came to the inevitable conclusion that this piece of Detroit engineering was not up to snuff for commuting and familial purposes (her family lives a bit out of the broader Twin City Metro-plex.)
When we got wind from our shop that the next likely conclusion was a $2500 repair, we started looking at solutions that would suit our purposes, and settled on a 2011 VW Jetta (Yetta 2.0 in my mind) certified, pre-owned bit of dealership jargon that would meet our needs. Today, we went to the dealership, test drove a few CPO cars that were in our price range, and settled on a 2012 VW Jetta S, that is well within our price range and financial situation.
After talking specifics with sales, I am happy to report we have bought a 2012 VW Jetta S, with just under 37k miles on the odometer and are oddly smitten with the investment. With the package we got, we'll not have to deal with much in the way of mechanical failure for the next few years. We are also looking forward to taking road trips and venturing outside of the normal range of our other vehicles, and reviling in the fruits of our investment.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/VLVvBKF.jpg?1)
Photos from Ikea parking lot
It isn't the newest thing on the market, it isn't the fastest, and purists would have you believe that the engine (as it is relatively dated) would have you believe (and rightly so) it isn't the fastest, but it meets our needs as a day to day/get about vehicle, that we've been needing.
More-so than the obvious, I am happy to report that the texts and more frequent calls as some may know/find out, regarding the mechanical failure of one's significant others' car's mechanical failures I hope to fall off completely.
I am albeit smitten with this new purchase as it is the newest, and lowest mileage vehicle I've yet owned, and though I am sure we'll run into something down the line, I am happy to have something so reliable for my girlfriend/wife and be rid of such a dubious piece of shit as is the dodge. Sorry MDJ, I had to conform a bit, but rest assured I'll be learning everything I can from her father and doing 70% of maintenance on my own as I can.
