We got my car, generally referred to merely as "The RAV" in March, 2006. Here he is brand new.
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| RAV's "baby Picture", March 2006 |
He was a very good car, but 17 years is a long time. He only had 115,000 miles on his odometer and there was nothing wrong with him that we knew of. However, we did not want to spend a lot of money fixing any problems that might arise. With that in mind, we had been thinking about a replacement for some time. Unfortunately the very very low car inventories due to chip shortages and other issues from the pandemic made getting a new car a serious challenge.
There were no Toyota RAV4's at all in the area that we could find online, so we looked at the Lexus equivalent, the Lexus NX. Those were also in very short supply, Park Place Lexus Plano had two, both the same color green, while the Park Place Lexus Grapevine had six in a couple of different colors and trim levels. With that in mind, we headed to Grapevine on President's Day to see what we could learn about the Lexus NX.
Long story short--we drove home with a new Lexus NX 350 Luxury model, now tentatively named "Snowy". Here are the required dealership pics with mega bow.
I was so tired by the time we got home, that I forgot to take pictures. I did take some a few days later.
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| Snowy's Baby Pic |
I keep thinking that she doesn't look like an SUV, but she is. She even opens automagically if you kick below the door and have the fob in your pocket!
In some ways she is more a computer on wheels than a car, with a big screen and a heads up display, I have only scratched the surface in learning what she can do. I can say she is always looking out for me. She wouldn't let me back out into oncoming cross traffic from in between two large trucks at a local strip mall because she saw the oncoming traffic that I could not see. She warns me if I am over the posted speed limit and fusses at me if I stray out of the traffic lane. She also warms the steering wheel so my hands don't get cold.
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| Unfortunately the heads up display doesn't show up in this pic. |
I am glad I got the pictures when I did. One day later a gigantic dust
storm blew across Texas. Before it left here we had a very light rain which left brown dirt on everything. As one local meteorologist explained, the rain did not wash off the dirt because the rain drops themselves were dirty. Texas weather--it is always something.
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| Snowy covered in dirt from Lubbock |
I am waiting to take her for a bath until after the next storm blows through later today.
BTW, we followed the posting for the RAV online. We traded him in on Monday and delivered the title to the dealer on Tuesday. He sold on Saturday. Hopefully he has found a good home.
