The new (old) car

So, my dear little hyundai was totaled and has gone on to a better place, along with the BRAND new tires we had just bought for it. We got 5500 for the car from the insurance company... but we still owed about 3500 (those darn elantras depreciate quickly apparently). SO, we didn't have much to work with. We toyed around with the idea of buying a new car, and I fell in love with this:
A new "glacier blue" Honda CRV. We test drove it and actually seriously considered it. I don't know what drug we were on that deluded us into thinking we could EVER afford such a car.

After looking at what payments would look like, we went the other direction: Houston Craiglist. We had from Thursday night, when we found out from the insurance company how much money we'd get, until tuesday, when we had to return the rental car, to find the right car.
We found a '01 blue CRV that I really liked for 6k, but both of us felt that we could find something better. 2 days later, we gave in and told the guy we'd buy it. The next day he emails us and says he ended up selling it to a "higher bidder" (even though he had already arranged to exchange the car with us). So... boo. Our runner up, which I didn't like much at first impression, was a '98 Honda Accord with 98k miles on it. I had vetoed it when we first saw it.
Well, meet Morgan (after another old black man):


I've really warmed up to him. Really, for a ten year old car he's in great shape. And, as a honda civic, he's probably got another 100k in him. The interior is in great shape (original floormats even). The only exterior problem is some paint damage on his bum:

I don't think he's ever seen a garage in his life. The only other things I don't like is that it doens't have a boit-boit (keyless entry thingy), no LATCH (for easy and safe installation of a car seat) and it has no CD player (no tape deck, even). But, it has more guts than the Elantra, and the best news is it only cost $5000- meaning we have no car debt! (also means we will NEVER get to sod our backyard, or buy a dresser for the nursery...)
So in the end I guess it all worked out. It was a very stressful weekend though, and I'm grateful for a husband who knows a thing or two about cars (or, perhaps, for a father-in-law who knows a thing or two about cars:)).