Besides the joy of driving a car with a V3 engine, we had a couple of problems with The Prius.

First, it was small, and we had to use a roof rack pretty much any time we wanted to go anywhere or do anything.  Second, The Prius had this horrible habit of getting broken into and, more recently, getting its roof rack stolen.  With two kids under the age of five, we knew we were going to replace our car in the next 18 months — so, all of the above added up to a desire to throw in the towel a year and a bit early.

Years ago, we decided we were going to buy American for our next car (USA! USA!) and we went to the dealership basically only looking at Ford’s.  Escape.  Flex.  Explorer.  My Texan wife decided that the Escape was too small, even though it was 237 times the size of The Prius.  I vetoed the Explorer, because I’m the one that has to street park that beast.

So we settled on the Flex.  Until, thank god, we walked by a Jeep on the way to our final test drive.  Whew.

The Prius is dead.  Long live The Prius.  Oh, and happy birthday, Sparkler.