The 2014 didn’t end so pretty…
On Christmas day, we had a sewer backup, and flooded from the entrance to our family room. Luckily, the following day was a regular business day and I could have plumber to come and fix the problem and insurance company sent us a remediating company to cleanup and sanitize the area.
Everything went relatively smoothly with insurance company, and all expense would be covered.
The 2015 didn’t start so pretty neither…
My wife had an accident in Chicago. It was hard fault, but the poor guy whom she hit, did not have driver’s license, so his car got impounded and he was taken away… π
Of course, Insurance took care of us well, but unfortunately the car was totaled, and now we have to search for our new ride…
We finally start seeing lights at the end of those two mess…
Our insurance company agreed us to buy the material, and install the flooring ourselves. We decided to do this so that we can remove the flooring and then we can start painting cabinet, which we wanted to do for long time, before putting down new flooring. (just needed to paint side board and we are planning to paint the rest later)
We picked Mohawk Laminate
We so far only finished a half way in kitchen, but at least the things get going, so hopefully finish everything soon…
The car shopping was much more fun for me.
Even though I was not shopping for my fun car, it is still a car shopping, and I had a legitimate reason to drag my wife into test driving! π
It has to be an SUV for her, and she had to like the interior. From original 10 or so candidate, we narrowed it down to:
Acura RDX (Price was really GOOD! Interior was way outdated, Cabin was noisy)
Acura MDX (At the price point, there’s others with better ride, and interior quality, 7seats are nice)
BMW X3 (My Top pick for the handling, ride feel, but priced a bit too high)
Infiniti QX60 (Not a bad car, but nothing better compare to Highlander, and cost the same…)
Lexus NX200t (Much smaller than I was expected, Very quiet, too soft suspension)
Lexus RX350 (Didn’t test drive, but rode before, Quiet, but dated..)
Mini Countryman -This was more for me π (Loved the handling, but way too small)
Toyota Highlander (Best bang for buck… 7 seats, all bells and whistle, almost feel like Lexus quality.)
Volvo XC60 (Loved the interior, simple look, powerful, tons of safety features)
Few others didn’t make it to the list was Ford Flex, and other SUVs, Cadillac SRX, Mercedes GLK. Mostly for the Interior look, and GLK for it’s price…
After Looking at them at the showroom and some test drive, we ended up back to another Highlander.
Our old Highlander Hybrid was 2006 model and lasted 160,000 miles, without any problem. Not even a small one… RIP…
We are still waiting for the dealer to either locate one, or order one to be built. With top of the line trim level of Limited w/ platinum package, it comes with all the imaginable options, and safety features. We picked Hybrid, and it has a great gas mileage. It probably do not payoff for the cost difference, but what we like a lot is the torque-full-ness when launched from the stop. It may have less power to weight ratio compare to the V6 Model, but the motor’s torque is at max from the 0 RPM.
Well… I’ll report in detail once we get our new car. It may as far as 2 months from now though, if they have to order it to be built…
you forgot to mention that the interior of Lexus NX200t is U.G.L.Y..