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Things weren’t chaotic enough before we left Baltimore, so I decided to put Lisa’s car up for sale. We loved our little Jetta, but it just wasn’t enough to accommodate an infant seat in the back. When we kept our nephew several years ago, we had to pull the driver seat up so far that I couldn’t use the clutch. The phone started ringing shortly after I placed the ad on Cars.com. I had a solid offer within a week and we sold it the Tuesday before we left town. It was great not having to tow a car back to Texas. However, this left us one car short.

While on vacation in Rhode Island, we test drove the Volvo V50, Audi A4 Avant and BMW 328 wagon. We loved the A4 and were not impressed by the Volvo and BMW. I started looking. I started researching. I started building out models online. I started asking friends for the opinions. During my research I discovered that the Volkswagen Passat wagon had the same engine, the same body and similar options than it’s luxury-class cousin, the A4. Yet, it came with a much sweeter price tag. We test drove one last Saturday and brought one home Monday night.

We got a silver VW Passat Wagon Lux with black leather interior. It’s packed full of “mom” features: push-button start, a power lift gate, rear door sun shades, and among other things, an “Auto Hold” button. When the Auto Hold is engaged, when the car comes to a stop, it will not move even if you take your foot off the brake. This will let us easily turn around and comfort (or beat) the kid without worrying about the car rolling away.

Today was my first day to drive it and I’m quite impressed. Click on the pic below to go to the .Me gallery.

By the way, that’s our house in the background of one of the pics. We’re loving it, too.