The 12 Cars of the Pingels

Some people go through a lot of toilet paper, some go through a lot of milk... We go through a lot of cars. Since we have been together (January 2006) we have gone through 12 cars. Yup! And no, we do not always turn a profit... Oh well!

When we met, Ben had a 1997 Dodge Stratus (the White Stallion), and I had a cute little 2000 Chevy Cavalier named Martin. We mostly drove Ben's car, because he was usually the one driving. We sold that Stratus in March 06 so we could afford to get married. Everyone kept telling us that we only needed one car once we were married. Unfortunately we believed them.

White Stallion

Martin

In July 2006 we traded in Martin for Elizabeth, a 2000 VW Jetta. We wanted a car with 4 doors in the event we had children.

Elizabeth

A month or two after we bought the Jetta, we realized the engine might have some issues. Plus we felt guilty having a nice car like that while we were poor college students, so we sold it. We also decided we needed two cars instead of one nice one. Thence came Brandon and Rachel (the cars, not the kids!)

Brandon

Brandon was a 1991 Toyota Truck. What a beloved member of the family (according to Ben!). Rachel was a 1994 Honda Accord.

Rachel, Christmas Day, 2006.
We came home from a couple of days away and the Scotts had lovingly decorated it with snow...

On August 28, 2006 we found out we were expecting the real Rachel Brooke.We decided we had gone a little overboard getting something not as fancy, so we put both cars up for sale. The truck sold first (unfortunately) so we kept the Honda. Ben went off to Pocatello and brought home Fran, our 2000 Oldsmobile Alero.

Fran

Fran was good to us, and brought home Rachel to us. While Ben has been satisfied with many other cars since, I still long for the days of good old Fran.

In the June of 2007, we decided to trade Fran in. The transmission was starting to slip, and that worried us (no, the idea of just fixing a car never occurred to us!). So we traded it in and bought a 2003 Mazda 6 which we called Roxy.

Roxy

And then the snow fell, and the car slid all over the place. Again, it never occurred to us to get snow tires... So In October 2007 we traded Roxy in, to Ben's great dismay. He still talks of Roxy to this day...

By that time we were expecting Brandon, and were worried about having enough room to travel, so we bought a 2003 Kia Sedona named Paddington.

Paddington

We bought it on Saturday, and by Monday went back to the dealership. Ben just didn't feel right about it, so we traded it in and got a 2006 Dodge Stratus. We called it Zak.

Zak

We moved in with Ben's grandparents in March 2008. It was fine at first, until the driveway suddenly became a lake... Apparently Zak can't swim, so he got stuck. That was quite a site... See any contrast between the two pictures?

After we got our tax rebate for 2007, we had an opportunity come up that we couldn't pass up, so along came our 1999 Oldsmobile Alero. We figured we had already bought our 2nd Stratus, so why not our 2nd Alero? Poor thing... he never got named.

The unnamed 99 Alero

After Brandon came, we decided that we could use the money rather than having two cars (moving is expensive!) so we sold our unnamed friend.

After Ben got his job at Thrifty, we decided to get a 2nd car. With Ben in Spokane with the car every day, it was a tough act to juggle when doctor appointments and whatnot came along. So, after an extended amount of searching, we came home with Jedediah, our 2002 VW Jetta.

Jedediah the Jetta

So, I'm noticing a pattern in our Jettas... This one turned out to have some major issues, so we canceled the deal two days after purchase and got our check back. We went to Ben's work and bought a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt, named Colbie.

Colbie the Cobalt

Colbie is great. We get 44 MPG on the freeway (in the 60 MPH zone) and 38 when going 75MPH. With Ben's commute being a half hour each way, we've seen a huge drop in our gas bill.

Now you can see why we're proud of ourselves that we've had Zak the Stratus for a whole year now!

Of course, all that will change in January...