Buying a car
5 necessary criteria:
- Must have all-wheel drive. I find this necessary living in the driving conditions that we do in Interior Alaska. When I first moved here I had a 2WD truck and I’ll never go back.
- Monthly payment must be under $250 a month. Financially, I cannot afford a car payment more than $250 a month so it needs to stay within this budget.
- High safety ratings. My wife and daughter are the most important things to me. It’s necessary I drive a car that has received high safety ratings in crash testings.
- Comfortably fit 2 car seats in the back. We hope to grow our family and we need a vehicle that will comfortably fit two car seats in the back. Space is a big issue when trying to find a car that isn’t too big and burning a lot of gas but will also fit the entire family.
- anti-lock braking system (ABS) feature. This goes with criteria #1 and feel this is an important safety feature for our Alaskan roads and driving conditions.
5 desirable criteria:
- Fuel efficient vehicle. I feel this should almost go under the necessary criteria as I always strive to improve my carbon footprint. To be honest, I’ll take the safety of my family over the fuel efficiency of my car.
- Heated seats. This feature is so nice when its -40F outside! I don’t have a garage so our vehicles are always outside and it sure is nice getting into a car with warm seats.
- GPS navigation installed in vehicle. I use my gps on my phone a lot and it would be a great feature to have this installed in my car.
- Power rear gate. We rented an SUV with this feature and it was extremely helpful you’re a parent lugging around a big stroller and other baby gear. It’s like an extra set of hands.
- roof cargo capacity for outdoor gear. I like to bike and ski and prefer a vehicle where I can install racks on top of the car instead of in the truck which is now taken over with baby gear.