Here it is. Our newest version of financial suicide. 2019 Toyota RAV4 Adventure. Lunar Rock. We were eyeballing a red color for a while. The GG knows I like colorful cars and things. In the end it was me who flip-flopped to Lunar Rock. I have to admit my switcheroo was partly due to the naming opportunities.

We ordered this loverly vee-hickle a couple weeks ago and it became available earlier this week so the GG drove the Frog Hopper down to The Planet Ann Arbor to pick it up. I *think* I will be able to drive this vee-hickle into Meijer tomorrow morning for a grokkery run. It has a fob. Fob. Fob. Put your foot on the brake and push the start button. I am not accustomed to this kind of functionality although I did manage to drive npJane’s VW down from the yooperland last summer without incident. As for communicating with my car with an iPhone app, I will muddle through that as I go. I do NOT need “lessons”.

So. Why Toyota? I think American vee-hickles are great if you are going to lease them for a couple years or whatever. We do not do that. We keep our vee-hickles FOREVER. We both have memories of our beauteous Island Teal POC (Chrysler minivan) and how it plagued us with issues in its older years (and even when it was relatively new). We bought our first Honda while we still owned the POC and have been going with Japanese vee-hickles ever since, driving them FOREVER with minimal problems.

The GG researched Honda, Toyota, and Subaru SUVs and determined that the RAV4 fit our needs because it has a bigger towing capacity (3600 lbs.) than the others. Our towing requirements do not require a 5th wheel outfit but we do tow things so towing is always a consideration.

Honda remains my fave and I love the idea of a CRV but not just yet. (Ssshhhh, don’t tell Ninja I am even whispering about replacing her.) But maybe that’s my next vee-hickle. It will tow lightweight things like kayaks and small botes and maybe the Trash Trailer if it doesn’t have a heavy load.

As of today, I have droven Mooon Yooonit from its location in the pic to a parking spot literally feet away. Tomorrow will be my first real test drive.

Oh yeah, if you are one o’ them thar Buy American folks… I’m not sure where the RAV4 was built but only one of our Hondas (the Ninja) was built in Japan. The rest were built in the USA or Cananananada (in one case). These Japanese companies are employing plenty of American workers.

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