Today is the day we get our new lease. We’ve been leasing vehicles since 1998, and in that time, we’ve had the following:

1. 1998 Ford Ranger (Shortbox)
2. 2003 Subaru Forester
3. 2007 Jeep Compass (Worst vehicle we ever leased)
4. 2010 Subaru Forester (Our second)
5. 2013 Ford Edge
6. 2016 GMC Terrain
7. 2019 Nissan Murano
8. 2022 Subaru Outback

The new car is going to be another Nissan Murano. We very much liked the one we got in ’19, and at the end of the lease were trying to figure out a way to keep it, but since we were amid the pandemic, and supply chains were pushed to the limits, new vehicles were like dodos, they just weren’t available. Car dealerships were clamoring for end-of-lease vehicles so they’d have something to sell, and even though our 2nd choice was a Forester, there just weren’t any. People were reserving vehicles that were still being shipped from overseas, and car lots were like ghost towns.

So, we went with an Outback. I wasn’t completely sold on it, (I mean the damn thing was white for crying out loud) we were rather disappointed in not being able to get the Forester, and further frustrated by the fact that when we extended the lease on the Murano for 2 months, the caveat being that we had to turn it in, we couldn’t even buy it outright at that juncture. It was one and done. But in the intervening 3 years, we’ve come to appreciate the Outback, and perhaps in ’28, when it’s time to get another vehicle, we might go back to one. The most ironic thing was that in ’03 when we got the first Forester, we test drove an Outback and it actually felt cramped in the cabin. I think that model was a smaller vehicle then and the Forester was larger. Going ahead 22 years, when we test drove the new Forester, it felt cramped! Much different from the car we’d been driving currently. Rather weird.

Seeing as this is Oleo Acres, there’s a bit of nostalgia to this as well.

When I was younger we had a green 1970 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon (think old time SUV for you Gen Z’ers) and it was affectionately referred to as a ‘woody’ because it had wooden accents along the sides of the vehicle, as well as the steering wheel and different parts in the interior. We pretty much drove the wheels off that car. When we finally donated it around 1987, it had well over 150,000 miles driven, both my brother and I took our driving tests on it (it was all I could do to keep from using my finger with the power steering to turn the wheel on my driving test, rather than the required ’10’ and ‘2’ hand holds) and both passed. Many a vacation was spent going to Ohio, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and even Maryland over the years. It managed to haul the Christmas tree every single year with no problem.

The most amazing feature was the ‘3-way’ rear door though. It could fold down, or be opened to the side, or you could just roll down the automatic rear window to do what you needed to in the back. Add in the fold down 3rd seat in the cargo area and you could haul a lot of people (kids mostly) from here to there and back again.

[30 April] Here’s the new ride. We’ve had it 2 weeks as of today. Still getting used to all the doodads and specialties that make it what it is, but it’s very snazzy. We went for the Platinum model, as it has not only heated and ventilated (cooled) seats, but they also contains massagers. Yeah, go figure, right? I imagine on an extended trip you’re going to want to take a break from all the driving, and instead of getting out and running around for a while, you just park, turn on the seat massager, and let it do the work. Also, the vehicle has wireless connection to both Android & Apple devices, so you don’t have to mess around with cables and/or dongles to get them to connect to the car. SiriusXM comes along with it, but the one thing it doesn’t have is a CD player. First vehicle we’ve owned in many years, not to have one. I guess with the advent of streaming services, the above-mentioned connection to your phone (and Spotify/Pandora/Amazon/Apple if you happen to use them), a CD player would seem to be redundant, I guess.

While we were looking at cars, the color of this one caught my eye at the dealership. The last blue car I owned was a 1989 Ford Escort LX. Bought it brand new from the dealership in Pine Plains, NY. It was a nice car, but it had very few bells and whistles, because it was a very stripped-down version of the model. It even had a standard transmission, because back then, an automatic transmission cost. more. A very basic radio, no air conditioning (as I was looking it over with my Dad, I was wondering just how much further down the rabbit hole it could go, considering that it only had seat belts because they were required by law!) but it was affordable, and since my Father had been burned 2 years prior by my brother defaulting on the loan for his 1st vehicle, as unfair as it was, Dad wasn’t going to ‘make the same mistake twice’. Even though you could argue my brother and I were 2 separate people.

Anywhoo, we’re on our new lease and it’s driving all right for the most part. Most of our trips so far have been to appointments, so we’re not putting much mileage on the car at all (as usual). I haven’t completely figured out all that it can do, but I have run into a couple of issues that I haven’t yet figured out. When I start the car, the radio comes on by default, and I haven’t found a setting yet that changes that. In addition, while I have been successful in setting up a profile so that I can have it remember my seat settings et al, there’s an option of connecting to the car through Nissan Services, but while my wife can sign in, being the leaseholder of the vehicle, when she added me through her account, I cannot sign into the car, just the app and the company website. We tried to talk to Help Services, but after an hour of trying different things, they said they’d get back to us for more assistance, and never did. Someone from Nissan called yesterday to say that they’re still working on the problem, but we needed to wait three more business days for them to find a solution. Honestly, I’m not overly hopeful.