in which we find ourselves the owners of an suv

Add this to the list of things I said I'd never do, along with colour my hair and move to the west coast while my mother is alive. My hair, once a lovely honey blond, became a drab brown. My mom moved to the west coast first! And we need a bigger vehicle that can handle rural road conditions.

And so, we own an SUV.

In 22 years in New York City, I didn't own a car at all. We bought a new hatchback wagon in 2005 and a well-used compact in 2017. And yesterday we bought a big thing: a 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander with two sets of tires (including new snow tires) and 88K kms on the odometer.

As we were shopping, both online and in person, I saw that I really prefer a boxy shape, an SUV that looks more like a small truck -- Subaru Forester, Toyota 4Runner, Volkswagen Tiguan. But the car has to be in good condition and within our budget, and we didn't see any of those that fit.

A 2016 Tiguan did turn my head, but the payments would have been a big stretch (who needs that!), plus the vehicle wouldn't actually give us much more cargo and passenger space than our compact Kia Spectra!

There were also lots of nice-looking red Kia Souls. If we were a two-car family and had one small and one large vehicle, I'd want that red Soul for myself... but that's not us.

In the end, it came down availability, affordability, and an appearance we could live with. So here it is, the third car we have owned, with our new BC plates.