No The Red One.

"Do you want to go to LaCrosse and look at Subaru's?" my husband asked.

I'd finished chores and was tired.  The week had been exhausting with his PEG surgery and all the phone calls and appointments that we'd made.

I'd sat in the house awaiting one call or another it seemed, all week.  Yes I have a cell phone, but where we live, we can't always get reception.

The weather was cold and dreary.  I was prepared to snuggle down on the couch and sleep all day.  But hubby's question perked me up.

"Yes!" I answered and changed out of my chore clothes and into jeans and a sweatshirt.  I wanted to get going before he changed his mind.  I hadn't owned a new car since 1995.  Well, not that we actually needed one, we were pretty frugal when it came to vehicles.  His 2003 diesel truck was a new purchase but we had needed a power house to haul hay and the 'mule' trailer.

We'd been looking at getting something to replace our 2002 Subaru Outback.  It had been a purchase we made used from a friend a couple of years ago.  20K miles later and lots of $ in repairs we'd decided that it was just going to nickel and dime us until it dropped dead.

I'd purchase my son's Jeep Liberty a few years ago and I still like it, but it does have 145K miles on it.  It gets 19 miles to the gallon period.

Hubby wanted something that wasn't going to need constant repairs and that would be dependable for driving back and forth to Madison this summer.  The vehicle we were interested in averages 34 miles per gallon on the highway.  It is also AWD. What I'd learned from driving the Outback, was that I liked how the Subaru handled in all sorts of weather and road conditions.

Off we went to the Dahl's Subaru in LaCrosse.

After the test drive we got back with the salesperson and the haggling began. Call it wiggle room, haggle, negotiating, or whatever.  My husband can be a frightful person to deal with.

We had driven a red XV Crosstek that had a light colored interior. Hubby preferred a dark colored interior.  He felt we ought to consider the Charcoal colored Crosstek that was 'in transit'.  Our conversation went something like this:

Him:  I like the Charcoal color, dark interior.
Me: I like the Red.
Him: I am buying it for you, so I want you to be happy.  I like the Grey color.
Me:  I like the Red.
Him: Well dark interiors are easier to keep clean.
Me: I like the Red.
Him:  I like the Grey.
Silence.

The negotiating gets done and hubby looks at Alex.
"We'll take the Red one.""