…is something I will be subscribing to in 2008. I got a thing in the mail from them yesterday, two free books, and a year’s subscription for just $20.

Consumer Reports is a great magazine, because they give unbiased opinions of products. If you are looking to buy a car, new or used, the annual Automotive issue, which comes out in April, is a must-see.

This is our car, which we bought six months ago. It is a 2007 Ford Focus, which got very high marks from Consumer Reports. We trust CR because we bought our previous car, a 1999 Ford Escort (aka Our Little Green Friend), based on their recommendation. We probably could have kept that car alive for longer, before trading him (I’ve always thought of that car as male) in for the Focus. But while we had him, he served us well, very few problems.

So now we’ve had this Focus for six months now, and we’re very happy with him (this one’s a boy, too, don’t ask me how I know…LOL!). No trouble so far, plus this car handles amazingly well in the snow. Better than Our Little Green Friend ever did.

Mike wasn’t crazy about the car spoiler on Our Little Gold Friend, but I think it looks cool. We bought the car off the lot, and out of all of the Focuses (should that be Focii?) on the lot, this was the best one for us. I hate leather seats, so the cars with those were out, plus, I can’t drive a manual, so the few that weren’t automatic were out. The one that was colored puke green was also out. So the gold one I did like has a spoiler…they didn’t charge extra for it, because they were on sale.

But we’re happy with the car, the payments are affordable for us, and that’s really all that matters! Thank you, Consumer Reports, for the good advice!