What Car do you Drive?

We bought an almost new Ford Expedition right before we had Mikey. Up until then, I was tooling around town in an electric blue Volkswagen Beetle. I've had the opportunity to drive many different cars in my life, and some of them luxury models, but I have never loved a car like I did my Beetle. But alas, we decided to get the Expedition because we were told, repeatedly, that a Beetle would never be able to accommodate a young family. To this day I wonder about that decision. On his way to pick me us up from the hospital, The Mister stopped to get gas and almost choked when he paid $50 for a full tank. And he choked again when we refilled it a couple of days later. We were happy when we were in an accident when Mikey was 9 weeks old--he never even woke up. And we are still happy every time we save money picking up furniture or home improvement supplies or make long road trips with every possible piece of child equipment we could ever need.

I just paid $75 for a little more than half a tank of gas, and I'm not happy.

Every time we look into getting a different car, like a hybrid, someone talks us out of it. The CHP officer told us we would be safer in a truck until the SUV craze is over. High elevation vehicles do damage when they plow into lower, lighter cars. Someone else told us that cars like the Prius are dangerous because the fuel cell makes it difficult to extract someone from a crash. Another person said they release all sorts of radiation that have been linked to genital caners.

My brother drives a Prius, and while he hasn't been in any crashes, he handles the LA freeways just fine. I can only assume his testicles are in working order.

I also looked into the new Volkwagen Diesel Jetta Wagon that is coming out in August. Diesel is more expensive than gasoline right now, but I know you can buy a converter and run on bio-diesel. The only wrinkle is access to bio-fuel stations. There don't seem to be any in my area. I heard you can also get the fuel (grease/oil) from local restaurants, but I'll need to do more research.

So what do you drive? How many kids do you have? Do you like, love, or hate your car? And what do you think of the Prius for a young family of four?