I grew up today.

I had been thinking about selling the Prius and getting a new car.
Then my Mom suddenly needed a car, and offered to buy the Prius, thus accelerating this process.

I looked hard at the Nissan Leaf, but Kristi and I couldn’t get our heads around the lifestyle change incurred by driving a car with a 100 mile range.

I had it in the back of my mind that I was ready for a more luxurious ride than the econo-boxes I’ve been driving since… well, always. Sure, the Prius is loaded with doodads and geegaws, but it’s still a li’l teeny car whose main function in life is to make me feel smug about $4/gal gas and how little of it I consume.

So I started looking at Audis and Volvos and I even considered another VW Passat. Just for good measure, I looked at Mercedes and was tickled to realize I could afford a C-class that wasn’t entirely stripped down.

Then I got a bug in my ear about diesel, and read about the great gas mileage and longevity, and thought hey, maybe I can keep the gas-sipping ride, but still have a little more comfort.

There are really no options for 2011 or 2012 cars that are diesel. Audi only does diesel at the lowest and highest ends of their product line, Mercedes doesn’t offer it in the C-class, and Volvo doesn’t seem to offer it at all. Even VW seems like it’s backing off of diesel right now. Curious.

So, I opened up my search to late-model used cars (hadn’t bought a used car since my junker car days), and I found out that essentially what was available were a small handful of Mercedes E-class cars. To my surprise, however, the used (2007 or 2008) E320’s were all very affordable! I could get into a lightly-used E320 for about the same price as a tricked out 2012 Audi A4. That pretty much made the decision for me.

I looked around, and there were four (count ’em) 2008 E320 Bluetec cars available in the area (one more in Eugene) with normal-to-low miles on them. Two were vastly overpriced at a Mercedes dealership. One had low miles, but a tragic interior color. The last one was the cheapest of the bunch (it had been moved from Florida), but had a nice color scheme (silver outside/grey with wood accents inside), decently low miles (40k), and a nice set of features (keyless ignition, iPod integration, navigation, Bluetooth ready).

I drove the car, and really liked it. I dotted i’s, crossed t’s, and after a mighty battle, with gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair, and protestations and lamentations on all sides, it’s mine.

I have to say that the car is entirely satisfying to drive. It drives “heavier” than any car I’ve owned, and it always feels like it’s got power in its back pocket, waiting to spring up if passing is required.

It’s going to take a little time to get used to the UI; there are a *lot* of buttons and switches and levers and indicators:

The voice in the navigation system is different than the Toyota. I think I shall call her Vivian.

Everything about the car whispers value and style. It feels like a real, honest, “grown up” car. There’s the promise of putting biodiesel in it later in its life. The engine should last 300,000 miles or more if I take care of it. I got in the car and suddenly realized that if I was going to have a car for so long that nobody could remember my ever having another one, I needed to get started.

And Vivian, I hope, will be the one.