we pulled the trigger- or rather the gas pedal

Well we did it.  We bought our first car.  I was really feeling queasy about the time frame of buying, i am not one to make a decision in a day, or even in a week!  So after a sleepless night, I told Hubby there was no way we could sign anything that day. I spent hours researching other cars, I found 2 that were an hour away that would be worth a look, but we were not sold on them. 

I finally broke down and called my mom about it.   I hadn't before because I knew the judgment that would go with the fact that we wanted something other than a junker.  I knew that in her opinion we were spending WAY too much money.  She said we could get a new car for that kind of money (which we could not, but I looked into it.)  We went to 2 more dealerships.  We found a car that we would be happy with for 3 grand less than the camry.  However, we were losing a lot of niceties along with a few other things.

What the decision came down to was- who is going to give us a better resale value- camry
which has the best MPG- camry (ok, the camry and the sonata were about the same)
which has a better reputation for reliability- camry
which is a better value according to Kelly BlueBook Value- camry by a landslide.

We never found a Malibu that we liked.  The only other car we found was an 09 Hyundai Sonata.  Although reports say that Hyundai has stepped up there game (beginning with the '09 models), I really trust the history of Toyota more.  I don't know if the 09 Hyundai's will last for 10 more years.  But I do know that I ran a camry into the ground (or so I thought) with nearly 200,000 miles on it, almost a decade old, and I still was able to resell it! 

So we are proud owners of an '09 Camry XLE.  I crossed out the proud bit because to be honest- we do not deserve a car this nice.  I do not know why I am so concerned with what others will think when we are happy with our decision.  I feel like I am letting down my family because they are footing a few of our other bills which we should have responsibility of.  No matter what we would have spent, this was going to be a huge investment.  Now it is an investment we will be able to live with for a long time.