Hello, Bees, and thank you for a very warm welcome! It’s a nice feeling to have to know there are not only interested readers out there, but also that there are so many who are willing to comment! Thank you for being an engaged, interactive community to which I aim to thoughtfully contribute, but also to learn from! A smattering of bees (@Andrea, @MamaMoose, @Arden) have commented on my introductory post, asking what is my Babymobile.
Well, what on earth is a Babymobile?
It’s the term I coined our brand-new Hyundai Sonata, which we bought solely because of Baby. I called it Babymobile*, like the Batmobile, because the Sonata really is quite the sleek street machine! I thought I was being so clever with “Babymobile,” but I guess this is a perfect example of when the Mister teases me that I have a whole made-up vocabulary in my head that only I get. If there is anything you ever don’t understand, just ask!
When I was 6 months pregnant, we traded in our only car, my prized Acura RSX, a flashy, little 2-door I’ve had since I was 24. I could have picked almost any car, but at that ripe, irresponsible age, all I was thinking about was, Does it have a sunroof, and is it fast?
{ me and my Acura RSX, just before trading it in }
It pained me to have to say goodbye to my baby, which had seen six years of girls nights out, cruising down the beach, had zipped me to and from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale to visit my parents on weekends, and had safely taken us from Florida to Chicago in a new chapter of our life together.
The Mister had finally convinced me that, with a real baby on the way, it was time to upgrade to a grownup car possessing four doors. These were our basic requirements, in order:
- Not an SUV or mini-van
- High safety ratings
- Big trunk space
- Roomy interior
It’s a good thing one of us is practical, hmph.
Though I miss my Acura, I’ll admit that the Hyundai Sonata** is a very respectable vehicle for getting Baby around. After the original Babymobile (a pre-owned 2011 Sonata) was stolen, we replaced it with a brand-new 2012 model that had just come out (this time in black) because we liked the Sonata so much! The in-laws had strongly pushed us to get an SUV, but we were/are vehemently against it in favor of a roomier mid-size sedan.
Best perk about the Sonata? The 2012 comes standard with Hyundai’s Blue Link security system so we can play Big Brother, like say if it is being driven away without our knowledge, you get what I mean? And, it gets pretty good gas mileage at 24mpg City/35mpg Highway––a plus for all those cross-country road trips the Mister is envisioning for our family in the future. #KillMe
{ Babymobile 2.0, bringing home baby from hospital! }
What do you look for in a Babymobile? Did you upgrade to a bigger vehicle when you started a family?
* Unfortunately, unlike the Batmobile, our Babymobile is not as good at fighting crime, clearly, as it was a victim of being stolen off our very own street after only two months in the city! Worse, this happened just four short weeks before my due date.
** This post is not endorsed by Hyundai.
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
hahah cute post!
I’ve actually been in SUVs since I was 18 and can never go back to a sedan now!
My dream babymobile is a Honda Odyssey. Honey, this is not your mama’s minivan! My brother had one, changed it for a Infiniti and went back! That thing is schw—-eeeet! I secretly hope he wants to change cars again soon so we can buy his off of him cheap! haha
honeydew / 7968 posts
Lol cute post. Our baby mobile is our suv, highlander. We love having an suv.
That really sux that the car was stolen. Ugh. Hope u didn’t have to pay anything out of pocket!
GOLD / squash / 13464 posts
I can’t believe your car was stolen so soon before baby! I can’t imagine that stress!! My parents have a Sonata and love it so much!
I drive a Toyota Venza and hubs drives a Camry. The Venza is a crossover so it has the space of an SUV but it’s not quite as bulky, and gets better gas mileage. We often drive from TN to MA along with our 55 pound pup so it just wasn’t an option for us to not have at least one bigger car.
grapefruit / 4800 posts
Our IL were moving to a city so they gave us their mini-van, We have 2 big dogs so it was going to be station wagon or minivan for us once baby came along.
guest
We did get a bigger car when our daughter was born. We went from an Audi A4 to an A4 Wagon…then the turbo went out, so I got an X5 which I really liked. Now that our daughter is older {8} and has more friends to haul around, I drive a Mercedes GL450 and love it. I know some people are not SUV people, but I am not a minivan person, so it works great for me. It’s fun to drive too!
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
That’s crazy your car got stolen, and with the it being so close to your due date!! Stress galore, I’m sure!
We currently drive a massive SUV, so I don’t plan on purchasing a larger vehicle for our future kiddos. I wouldn’t mind downgrading to a sedan though. I think our SUV is sometimes too big for lil me.
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
You are hilarious. I really like your writing style!!
Thank you for explaining the Babymobile. That is really horrible that you had that theft! My theft was not quite so bad. I had all of my 4 tires stolen and my car was left up on bricks one time. I was freaking out, though, because I had to go pick up baby from daycare and I had no friggin wheels. Luckily, DH came to the rescue.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
HAHA.
I traded my car in for a babymobile too!!!
Waaahhhh
I went from having a Alabaster white SLK55.. to a White PRIUS!!!! Sad times.
pomegranate / 3414 posts
We looked at mini-vans while pregnant with DD because we already had a 130# doggie (newfoundland) and both our families live about 3 1/2 hrs away; however we opted to keep our two sedans (Ford Taurus and Honda Accord). Now that baby#2 is on the way we are again considering a mini-van we’ll see what happens.
blogger / coconut / 8306 posts
I can’t believe your car was stolen!!!
We’re currently going back and forth about buying a new car. We own three right now, but only one of them (mine) is roomy enough to fit our stroller — but we can’t fit anything BUT the stroller in my trunk. So…
We’ve been looking at SUVs, but can’t justify the purchase at the moment. We’d only need an SUV for road trips (we travel 4-5 times a year), and can either borrow my dads or rent one.
So, for now, we’re sticking with my FoFo (I named my Ford Focus FoFo :))
GOLD / wonderful grape / 20289 posts
I also had an Acura RSX! And I was also very very upset when DH broke it to me that I would not be able to have my car anymore after the baby came. It was my first and only car. We have so many memories!
Luckily for me though my RSX is still in the family. First we just switched cars because DH had a nice, roomy, 4 door car. But soon that got too small for us too because the furbaby also has to come everywhere with us, so we’re a family of 4. And now I drive a mini van. But I still get to drive my old car if I’m going somewhere without my LO. Love it!
cantaloupe / 6730 posts
Haha! I totally knew what you meant by “babymobile”! Apparently, we share the same made-up language!
hostess / eggplant / 11068 posts
Hubs’ old Honda Accord is about to die and we’re also on the look out for a Babymobile. However, we’ll probably end up with an SUV or some sort of crossover. BUT! I will send this post to the hubs to see what he thinks!
blogger / pomegranate / 3300 posts
Yep when we found out we were going to have three backwards facing car seats at one time we started looking for mini vans. We ended up with an odessey
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
@Oceanis723:
lucky bunny!
blogger / pomelo / 5400 posts
Hahahahahaha! We have the same exact Babymobile, purchased because we had the same exact criteria. In fact, I think ours may be the exact same color as 1.0! Great minds think alike.
coffee bean / 48 posts
I knew what you meant when you said “babymobile”! My husband sheds a little tear for your RSX, he had an Integra in college until it finally bit the dust.
pomegranate / 3225 posts
I’m so sorry your car got stolen! Yikes! I’m like you, I like sporty & small cars. DH has a sedan, and it’s just not going to be big enough for hauling baby, dog, and gear around! So we are going the SUV route. I hope to get a hybrid at least though!
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
First, I wanted to say welcome and that I love your dog’s name! We too got a babymobile. We settled on the Audi Q5 2T, which has an excellent safety profile, great gas mileage for a crossover SUV (better than the Outback). We needed all wheel or 4 wheel drive since we live on the Wasatch front. I love our babymobile!
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
I can’t believe your car got stolen! I have to agree with a PP, I really like your writing style!
pomegranate / 3658 posts
@chopsuey119: I can’t believe getting a Prius is sad times for you – that’s my idea of the zippiest, sexiest car around!
I love love love your anti-SUV stance. Glad to know I’m not alone! I’m a little surprised more parents aren’t anti-SUV, I mean, don’t you want your kids to inherit a healthy planet and all?
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
@PawPrints: HAHA I LOVE my prius! And definitely want a healthy planet for my kids!
My previous car was soooo sexy. You’re right though–the Prius is totally sexy too.
pomegranate / 3053 posts
That’s just wild that your car got stolen! I know the feeling…I thought my car got stolen in a grocery parking lot one time b/c it was gone when I went back. Actually, twice! Both times it got towed. So embarrassing. As for baby mobile, when we bought a house and needed two cars b/c we’ll both need to commute to work I knew that we needed an SUV b/c we were thinking of starting a family shortly after we moved into our new house. Also, my husband’s old car (before it got flooded in a flash flood) was a coupe so that’s won’t work if we have a baby. Now we have an SUV and a four-door sedan. I told my husband that he can get another coupe when our kids are more grown up and won’t require to be in car seats anymore. I felt bad that he couldn’t get the car that he wanted… but he can in the near future.
cherry / 207 posts
Hahahaha, I totally got it when you mentioned Babymobile cos my very own car is call Sheepymobile after a nickname DH has for me
We did not get an SUV or minivan after our oldest. It was perfectly manageable with a 2002 Honda Civic and 2004 Acura TL. But after we found out we were having twins, sedans and SUVs just won’t work with 3 car seats so yeah, we have a minivan now.
nectarine / 2163 posts
I totally knew what you meant by babymobile! We just went through the process of buying one too because previously, we had NO car.
DH is still kinda in the process of convincing me that I can’t rely on public transport now that we’ve got a baby coming. I’m still not convinced
mostly because I don’t have a license and don’t want to pay hundreds of $$$ to get one!
pomegranate / 3329 posts
We have a kidmobile, it’s huge….
Then we have a smaller suv too, for when we don’t have my step-daughters. I dream of the day I can drive a sexy car, my dream car is a Dodge Challenger. For now it’s 7.3L Diesel Excursion and Ford Explorer.
GOLD / coffee bean / 41 posts
@tequiero21: Insurance covered most of it, but because we had found and negotiated such a great deal on the pre-owned Sonata, the original Babymobile, that great deal no longer existed the second time around so we did pay a bit more out of pocket unfortunately!
GOLD / coffee bean / 41 posts
@Rubies: Good luck on your next Babymobile! The Sonata is a good size for our current and foreseeable future (next few years) lifestyle. It has a roomier interior than many other mid-size sedans in its class and we thought this was comparable to many smaller SUVs!
GOLD / coffee bean / 41 posts
@kirstkat: I am a life-long believer in Acura–I also had an Acura Integra for a few years before the RSX (it was totaled in an accident, not my fault, and I somehow was not hurt at all). If we ever splurge on a luxury vehicle in the future, I am strongly pushing for another Acura, this time a 4-door one
GOLD / coffee bean / 41 posts
@Leialou: Thank you for the compliment and for following along!
GOLD / coffee bean / 41 posts
@Oceanis723: Wow! No way around the minivan!
GOLD / coffee bean / 41 posts
@Andrea: Thank you for the compliment! Your own babymobile story is awful, but it sounds like you can laugh about it now and makes for a good story!
GOLD / coffee bean / 41 posts
@Penny Lane: Hundreds of dollars for a license?! Where do you live? I don’t recall having spent that much on a license, but then again, my first one was so long ago, maybe I blocked the initial cost from my memory! I live in a big city with public transit which we try to take whenever possible, although I’ll agree that it is very convenient to have a car for transporting Baby in some situations! But, I’m sure you can manage with public transit if you don’t have a car––plenty of moms in cities do it!
nectarine / 2163 posts
@Mrs. Hula Hoop: New Zealand
everything is expensive here. There’s three stages of license you need, and the total cost for all the tests and everything ends up being just under NZ$350.
DH is insistent, that I’m not going to be a public transport Mum (he haaaaates public transport of any kind) and I guess since technically he’s paying for all my license fees I should probably just suck it up and get it done!
GOLD / coffee bean / 41 posts
@Penny Lane: I figured you must be international. It’s very expensive and difficult to obtain a license in Europe, too. You might find yourself grateful to have your own vehicle in certain instances, but I bet you would manage if you never had it to begin with!
olive / 60 posts
Just picked up my babymobile (a Ford Edge) at 32 weeks. Had to lose my reliable acura integra. Miss her already but at 36 weeks, im happy to get in to a higher vehicle and in reality, the acura was 2 door and would not fit a car seat LOL