So, back in October of 2007, we purchased a "pre-owned" 2004 Honda Odyssey. At that time, we ended up donating the 1995 VW Jetta III that I had been driving (it had 185K miles on it). I began driving Shelly's 1993 Honda Civic LX



Overall, it was in pretty good condition considering its age. It had been through a major hail storm in the late-90s and so was dimpled. But, in comparison to my Jetta, it had fewer miles on it, maintenance costs for it would be considerably lower, and it had an AT so Shelly could drive it when necessary. So it made sense at the time to get rid of the Jetta and keep the Civic.

I drove it with relatively minimal complaining or griping (Shelly might disagree). One problem that seems to be common to Civics of this generation is that the points where the rear bumper cover attaches to the rear quarter panel is prone to rusting. You can see where it's separating in the above photo on the driver's side. We had that fixed once a couple years ago. It held up but recently started coming apart again. We asked the dealership to try and fix it again. They did, but it fell apart the same night I drove it home from the dealer's parking lot. I think they knew how futile an attempt it was that they didn't even charge us for that work.

We decided that it was time to replace the Civic. So, this past Saturday, we purchased a 2007 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE



Shiny. Pretty. Overall, it's in very nice condition. Seems to have been relatively well maintained. A couple of minor dings on the bumper (that I'll cover up with some touch-up paint) are the biggest cosmetic blemishes. It's much quieter on the inside than the Civic was, too. I feel very lucky to have gotten a replacement for the Civic. It's not the G35x that I was aiming for, but this fits in our budget.

Not entirely sure what we're going to do with the Civic yet. We had planned on donating it, like we did with the Jetta, to the Newgate Education Center. But, Shelly informed me last night that someone may be interested in buying it from us.