Shannon’s new grocery getter

Looks like there IS Roo for you.  After basically taking my car off the market back in December, I decided to have some fun with it again. I ordered a new exhaust and some other goodies for it. Most of which back ordered till early March.  Parts showed up, in they went. Not 24 hours later, I receive my first of many emails about the car. Turns out, I had forgotten to take the ad off Kijiji.  Emailed back and forth with the potential buyer, during which time I updated my ad, and had it bumped up to the first page for the first time since December. 30+ potential buyers and 2 weeks later, I finally had a solid sale, and the car has now been paid for and shipped off to Winnipeg. Yes, Winnipeg. Isn’t the internet a wonderful place? New owner is a car guy, and will hopefully enjoy the old girl as much as I did.

With the Subaru sold and gone, and Shannons lease on the Jetta quickly coming to a close, we decided to replace my WRX with a ‘family car’ for Shannon that we can both share during the months after she goes on maternity leave. Come June, we could likely survive on 1 car fairly easily. Come October, when the Jetta goes back to VW, we will have to. At least until I decide to go car shopping for myself again. Sometime between October ’10 and June ’11 I will have to decide exactly what I want, and go get it. Nice thing is, I have all that time to find the right car. No need to worry about rushing around or settling. I’ve got the time to wait it out, and let the right car and the right deal come to me. Absolute worst case scenario, my Dad has been letting me borrow the old white golf when we need it. Its not the fastest, or prettiest car, but it gets from a-b, has satellite radio in it (now), and gets pretty good mileage (31-33mpg).

Car shopping will be much more limited this time. Criteria is much tighter.  REQUIREMENTS: Manual transmission, hatchback, sunroof, performance oriented.  Strong preference will be given to all-wheel-drive cars.  I also am pretty sure I will be sticking with German, or north American or sweedish?! (Golf R32, GTI, Audi a3, CooperS, Volvo C30, HHR-SS).  Right now, as it has been for the past 5 years, the R32 is where my heart lies. Has all the functionality and comfort of my GTI/Golfs from the past. Adds All-wheel-drive and lots of power with great sound like the WRX had, and because they were NEVER sold in Canada, and only 5000 sold in the entire USA, its much more rare and unique then the CooperS.  Time will tell, but with luck, that car will be in the driveway before this time next year.

Shannons shopping was quick and painless.  Back in December, we started discussing buying from a friend of ours. Andrew had brought up an Audi a4 wagon a couple years back. In fact, it was his step by step directions that I used to import my silverado a few years back. Anyways. Shannon had fallen in love with this car back when she first seen it. She has always had a major thing for Audi wagons. Especially performance versions that also have All-Wheel-Drive.  Andrew’s car fit the bill perfectly. We know the history about as good as you can know a used cars history. And price wise, we made it work. So, Shannon is the proud owner of a 2005 Audi Avant UltraSport, (apr stage 1+chipped with injectors 1.8T engine, 6 speed manual, leather, AWD, sunroof, rollin’ on OEM 18’s for those of you who want details). Shannon couldn’t be happier with her choice. Thanks for taking such good car of it Andy!

Possibly the biggest news of all. Stelco err Lake Erie Steel err US Steel has signed a contract, and after a year of being off work, my Dad is FINALLY back to work. Congrats to all the workers for getting back to work. It sucks that so many people had to basically put their lives on hold due to a companies piss poor practices, but hopefully now, things will finally get back in order.

Lastly, Shannon is now officially 6 weeks from her due date. YIKES! So much to do, so little time!