I'm Gonna Plant My Carbon Footprint Where the Sun Don't Shine
Okay. I finally had a few spare moments yesterday to devote to cleaning out my car, and I have determined that our next automotive purchase will include an all-leather interior, cows, carbon, and polar bears be damned.
Why?
Because the once-beige upholstery in the back seat of my car is purple. Well, more of a mottled purplish/red with the occasional blotch of blackish who the hell knows, but you get the point. Even when it's clean, it looks as though you could catch something if you sit on it without a protective barrier.
The irony, of course, is that when we purchased the car I immediately went online and ordered a seat cover. And then The Boy immediately wedged the straw from his juice box full of grape goodness into the ONE GAP in the seatcover, and the purple monstrosity was born. Of course, it didn't help that the seat cover prevented me from noticing the stain until it was far too late.
And I still have no idea how the OTHER side of the back seat got a similar stain. I'm out of ideas. The dog chewed the seatbelt, sure, but she wasn't drinking grape soda.
I'm beginning to think that this car has some sort of besmirchment attractor. It's not quite 5 years old, and we've replaced 2 windshields AND the current one has a rock lodged in the center, had the dent caused by our father-in-law repaired, and have ignored the other divot that prevents the passenger door from opening all the way. No, I do not know how that happened. In addition, we have the stainage (we will not talk about the Starbucks Mocha carnage on the front seats, detritus from the Christmas Shopping Stress of Aught-Six), the dog-chewed seatbelt ($300 to replace? Oh, I think not. The Boy can just sit on the other side of the car), and an intriguing pen mark on the ceiling--the result of a sequence of events involving Hublet, student papers, an ill-timed yawn and a Tow Mater-adorned pen.
Plus, the cover for the fuse box just randomly flew off one day, as did the plastic doohickey that attaches to the gas cover opener lever thing.
I love this car beyond the telling of it, but it's not going to win any fashion contests. So I've decided that the next one will at least be easy to wipe clean, since no one in my family has the ability to sit still without causing upholstery damage.
And at least I haven't gone mucking it up by putting bumper stickers all over it, so that's something...
Speaking of child related desirable car features, it wasn't until I had to transport spawn that I realized what a truly wonderful feature sliding doors on a minivan were.
There are things far, far worse than grape soda, many of them found inside dogs. Usually.
Yeah, I know that pain. But we got leather in our new (to us) car (the same make as yours - we are modeling our lives after yours) and I must say, I fear the summer. The winter has been unpleasant, and did you know your back sometimes sticks regardless of the temp?
Think the leather thing through, BAW. Unbearably hot in the summer, uncomfortably cold in the winter, subject to perforation by dog claws, stainable by anything that will stain cloth if you don't wipe it up promptly, subject to rot if sugary liquid gets under it (through stitch-holes, aforesaid dog claw holes), stretchable when wet. I could go on.
When I bought my bonnie bride a new pickup (did I mention we're Texans?) I specified most of the bells & whistles, but insisted on stain-resistant cloth seats. 93K miles of hauling grandkids & great danes, and the seats still look new.
Tom -
You can get butt-warmers to help with the winter...summer may be a hassle, I admit. We have my mom's "hand me down" Honda with leather interior, though, and I HEART it. Of course, my dog was too small and light to actually perforate anything with her claws, so that may have been part of it.
At any rate, hopefully we can spend a few years sans car payment before having to revisit this topic (knock on wood).
Absense of car payment is indeed a blessed state. The "new" pickup is now six years old and paid for, as is the disgracefully old Maxima I drive. I'll be happy to send you a Great Dane or two to complete your experience.