I bought a new vehicle last year, a 2019 Ford Escape. Yep, an SUV. This is a much larger vehicle than I would have normally driven in the past; prior to last year, I don't think I would have predicted the likelihood of an SU ever being my everyday wheels. Nonetheless: my SUV and me.
The purchase wasn't prompted by drastic events, nor by a bourgeois desire to upgrade, but by an assessment of our circumstances and needs. My daughter Meghan got her driver's license in the summer. She doesn't live at home anymore, but she had been carpooling to work with her mom, Brenda. A change in Meghan's work schedule would have complicated the carpooling arrangement, so it was clear that Meghan had to have her own car. Rather than have her try her luck with buying a used car, I gave her my 2014 Ford Focus--better the devil you know--and secured a new vehicle for myself.
My original intent was to get another Ford Focus. Brenda and I have owned five Focuses over the years: a 2001, two 2006s, the above-mentioned 2014, and the 2017 that Brenda currently drives. We've been satisfied with the Focus, but there didn't seem to be a 2019 Focus available. A Fiesta would have been too small for me. We only buy new vehicles, because we've had bad luck with all previous used-car purchases, and we do prefer to stick with Fords--once again, the devil you know. What to do?
The unlikely answer of an SUV occurred to me during service of my 2014 Focus. On a couple of occasions last year, I needed a loaner car from the dealer, and in each instance, the loaner was an Escape. Because of body work after an accident, I had previously been forced to drive a collision shop's loaner, a Suburu SUV of some sort; I detested that vehicle, and couldn't wait to get my Focus back. If that was a fair representation of an SUV, then I didn't want a freakin' SUV.
But the Escape was different. It felt...smaller? No, that sounds like a negative. It felt comfortable. Familiar. It was a larger vehicle that handled like a smaller one. As it became clear that we were going to be giving my car to Meghan and buying a new one for my use, the Escape was the obvious, appropriate choice.
I've had a sometimes troubled history with cars, and I generally dislike larger autos. When we were visiting Florida in 1994, and I had to drive my Aunt around in her Cadillac after she suffered a fall at a restaurant, I thought that damned thing handled like a big freakin' boat. Why on Earth do so many rock 'n' roll songs celebrate that behemoth of a car? I've driven bigger vehicles when I've had to transport items, like when we moved from Buffalo to Syracuse, from urban apartment to suburban home, and at the beginning and end of each of Meghan's years at Ithaca College. Those tasks were all accomplished with unpimped rental rides of greater physical mass than my Escape.
The Escape is still, by far, the biggest car I've ever owned. But it's comfortable, and it's my ride. My great Escape.
An SUV.
Who'da think it?
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| My previous dream car. The Escape gets better gas mileage, and doesn't require nuclear power. |
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