Hybrids....and other bells and whistles

After driving a minivan for years (and years and years), dear H asked me to think about getting a new car. I spent weeks checking out various models on Edmunds.com and other car sites. I narrowed it down to the Toyota Highlander Hybrid and the Lexus RX400h. Both pretty much the same (except the Lexus is much prettier), but the clincher was that the Toyota takes regular gas while the Lexus takes premium. Well, with gas here going back up to $3.15 a gallon (and probably higher), it was a no brainer. My only caveat - no silver! I've driven silver cars for over 15 years and hate it! I've always wanted green or red. So H takes the minivan and negotiates a really great deal on the trade-in plus the Highlander. He calls me down to the dealership to help empty out the minivan and to give me the "bad" news. Because there are apparently so few hybrids in stock, the dealer gave him a great break in the price on the fully loaded model on the lot. Fully loaded - there are so many bells and whistles on this thing, it will take me 2 weeks to get through the manual, never mind setting everything up.  Actually it's kind of nice and exciting - the bluetooth phone thing is going to be a godsend now that NJ has made cell phone usage a primary offense. The dvd player probably won't get much, if any, use, but whatever. A backup camera could be fun in the grocery store parking lot.... and the navigation system should be a hoot. Maybe I'll start branching out now that I'll have a safety net for my poor sense of direction. So all in all, pretty dang cool car. 

The bad news.... heh, yeah, it's silver.