Our New Family Friendly Vehicle

Darren has just started his new job and no longer has a company car, so we have been looking for a replacement vehicle for the past couple of months. One that is family friendly and will accommodate our growing need for space so we can picnic on Sundays and enjoy long weekends together as a family! We can either take a standard vehicle from their fleet and salary sacrifice (as the costs still come out of his package) or hire purchase a new vehicle ourselves that we will eventually own. We chose the latter option.

Our car wish list is;

Safety. There is no skimping here people - 5* safety rating only
Practical, there has to be space for a pram and overnight bags
Parking sensors (for Johnny)
Sunroof (if possible)
Cream Leather (for Darren)
Sat Nav (Forget the UBD)
Euro Wagon (would be nice)

We already own a cute Mazda 3 sedan; Yuki and she is great. Very fuel efficient and a zippy little love that has us travelling care free as an Andrews Sister from A to B and then some. For some reason we feel the need to name our cars and we have had a few during our time together;

Erica - Darren's first car, a SAAB 900 sedan
Veronica - Our first car together, a VOLVO 850 sedan
Ethan - Our second car together, a VOLVO S60 sedan
Yuki - Our current car together, a MAZDA 3 sedan

Darren is and has always been a car fanatic and since meeting him, Johnny is now the same...well almost. Unlike some men who like cars, racing, engines etc we are more selective in our interest and only enjoy some cars. They are mainly European and way out of our price range or something dreamy and totally impractical. There's no harm in dreaming right?

Every year we look forward to the Sydney International Motor Show and always have our standard manufactures we visit; Mercedes, Volvo, BMW, Saab, Audi and then the dreamers Rolls Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin. It has been three years though since we've been to a motor show given the recent 'GFC'. Two Australian cities hold a motor show each year, Melbourne and Sydney but the Sydney show has been given the boot my manufactures given the high costs of attending and it is now going to be held bi-annually in each city. Next year will Sydney's turn and we are so excited. We'll also be attending as a threesome, the first time with Noddy!

It is amazing the price difference between Australia, the US and some European countries when it comes to cars. For example;

Mercedes' G class SUV in the USA has a starting price of $59,950 and Audi's Q5 SUV a starting price of $37,350. Converted into AUD that's around $70,000 & $43,600 respectively. The same cars in Australia start from $114,000 & $66,700 given the 33% luxury car tax care of the Australian government!

After many weeks of web browsing, brochure reading and test driving we can now happily announce the newest vehicular member of our family:

"Orlando" the Ocean Racer Volvo XC70 Station Wagon