<rant>

Okay. My sister recently got into a car accident. She's more-or-less okay (she hurt her shoulder pretty badly, but it should be prefectly healed in the next couple of weeks), but her car was pretty much totalled. Therefore, it's time for the Spencer family to discuss new cars.

Now, before all this happened, we had pretty much decided that our next car was going to be a hybrid. I've been pushing the Prius for years; it's the car I really wanted when we went shopping for me three years ago, but my parents insisted we get a tank for my first car. As there were no hybrid SUVs on the market back then, I became Part of The Problem with a monstrous 17.3mpg behemoth, now dubbed "Saruman¹." As my Dad refuses to drive my car when I'm in college for reasons I cannot fathom (in favor of his neolithic Cadillac that reeks of exhaust fumes), we were hoping that if Dad didn't want to drive my car, he could drive a new car of his own--hopefully a hybrid--and we could sell the Cadillac either for parts or to someone without olfactory glands.

¹ Partly for its "mind of metal and wheels," part for its reckless abuse of nature, and part because it's played by Christopher Lee.

But now, one unprotected left turn later, my sister is next in line. My sister really wants another SUV, but as she seems to place aesthetics over environmental friendliness (I adore my sister beyond words, but you don't always have to agree with those you love), I don't imagine she would necessarily choose an SUV hybrid like the Ford Escape, Toyota Highlander, or Lexus RX-400h. And those three are all 2005 models anyway, so they're not even on the market yet.

My mom came up with the perfect solution. My sister drives the marginally less neolithic minivan (which we used for carpooling and have kept out of habit) for the next three months, then when I go back to Philly, she drives my car. I'm not coming home for Thanksgiving, and then over Christmas, we could just lease a car for the weeks I'll be home. Perfect. And even perfecter (yes, that's now a word), by the time I get home for Spring Break or next Summer Vacation, the new eco-friendly SUVs will be out, and we can reconsider the new car issue.

Sure, the minivan isn't the most fun car to drive in the world, but it's only three months. I drove it far longer than three months when I was learning to drive. And my sister said herself that she doesn't want to be one of those girls that responds to an accident "Oh, I totalled my car, let's just get a new one!", and this would solve that, too. Another bonus is that it means we wouldn't have to get a new car right away, giving my dad a chance to be in a more stable financial position. He recently lost his two biggest clients, and as the real estate market is still in dire straits, he hasn't had much luck securing new clients for the space.

*dreamy* Mmm, wouldn't it be nice if Kerry gave a tax rebate to families that drive hybrid cars? To counteract Bush's moronic tax rebate for companies that bought SUVs? Mmm, Kerry '04.

*realistic* So yeah. Everybody wins! My car gets used while I'm in college, my dad doesn't have to worry about coughing up tens of thousands of dollars right now, and hopefully the story ends with one of my family members getting a hybrid. The Prius gets three times the mpg of my SUV, and the hybrid SUVs get about twice the mpg, so my family does its part lessening our dependence on foreign oil and reducing air pollution! Woo hoo!


So that's Priscilla's little fantasy of the day.

</rant>