Car Bleg
The baby’s August advent means, among other things, that we must upgrade the car. It is unfortunate, too, because on the whole we have enjoyed our compact sedan. Sure, it’s slow and noisy and more often than not filthy and all the speakers are blown such that Melissa Block sounds like she’s speaking through a fan blade, but the car has served us well. It is reliable, efficient, and paid for—especially it is paid for. Moreover, the thing survived a tornado! 
But there is just no reasonable way to travel from Iowa to western New York, northern Virginia, or central Arkansas with a child and its accoutrements, a dog, and our own luggage in a Geo Prizm.
So I’ve been researching models and narrowing our choices by reviewing the basic information, such as fuel efficiency ratings, safety features, and general options, all of which is data that can easily be found online. And it is important information to know, don’t get me wrong. It will be our first step in cutting the list down to a handful. But after that will come a test drive which we will use to narrow our choices to one or two models altogether. The test drive will be where we discover how a car feels and how well it maneuvers to our satisfaction. Unfortunately, it has been nearly ten years since either K or I last test-drove a car. We only have vague ideas of what to look for. Help us out, then; give us an idea. What is it you look for when test-driving a car?
