... and in the end

we decided to stick with the old workhorse for now.
I got a bunch of e-mails of advice, that was very nice!
But after test driving yet a few more duds, and feeling shocked that there really wasn't a vehicle that screamed "buy me!", I decided that there had to be a different solution, in the form of an infant seat to fit compact cars. Poring into some more research, we spent a morning at Babies 'R Us testing their seats for fit inside the car (Consumer Reports be damned). Sure enough, though not cheap, a couple of models solved the problem, and even the most expensive was 150 times cheaper than buying a new car. Both car seats were designed in Italy, they know all about tight cars.
Which brings me to this sidebar: is anyone else a little sick of CR? They give such weight to techie parameters that they seem to forget to test simple ease of use. The two "best buys" in the infant seat category were huge and had levers that required big strong hands to release. Also looking for a second monitor, CR went overboard testing for signal interference, but when we cross-referenced their "best buys" with the reviews on Amazon, we found out the models they endorsed had some simple but major flaws. One hilarious review stated that at lowest volume, their monitor made every rustle sound like a plane flying over their house, and that you couldn't make any adjustments of dials without an accompanying "beep" that woke everyone up.
Back to the car thing. The real clincher was the prospect that we could buy that 51 mpg Passat td wagon next year, and that perhaps $3/gal gas might spur other good options to crop up too. I mean come on, higher fuel standards have been the norm in Europe for how long now?
So I put Emma in the shop this week to have her fine tuned for all the little things I was holding off on in case she were to be traded in as a down payment. Since she's reached the over-the-hill status of having almost 100,000 miles, it won't be cheap. By the way, several people commented on the expense of repairs as a factor to consider with various models, but I'll challenge anyone to find me a car whose repairs, done well by a good mechanic, are cheap. They don't exist. All cars are expensive to repair, unless I were back in auto shop class with Dave Egolf and doing it all myself (which was great fun, but my Tuesday evenings are now pretty booked).
Well folks, I think I have something like a week or two before Buttercup comes along. My OB, who delivered Biscuit, says it'll probably be a quick delivery, having reviewed how things went last time. But she also said, three times, with a huge grin, "oh you've got a big baby in there." Yikes! So the sooner the better. My body is running out of room for the both of us, I've gained my 25 pounds now and I'm 2 inches bigger in the waist than I was for C, so I'm feeling pretty ready!