Spring Fling

by Andrea Harris

I cheated on Sugar.  Scandalous, I know!  She was having her cosmetic surgery after this winter’s little mishap and I needed something else to drive in her absence.  My favorite guy at Ken Garff Honda of Orem, Wendell Wood, kindly set me up with a brand new Honda CR-V for the week. Don’t tell, but I was nervous.  Is that weird?  While I cut my driving teeth bombing around many a parking lot in my dad’s huge, red pickup truck, I think of myself as an almost exclusively small car person.  I like the way I connect with the road and the car just feels like an extension of my body. (Not that I’ve given it any thought... ever.)  Honestly, I feel like I’m just floating around loose in anything much bigger than my Accord, so when Wendell handed me the keys to a mid-size SUV I tried to not have a stroke.  

I shouldn’t have worried. The CR-V handled like a car and I mean that as a compliment.  I didn’t feel like I was hogging the road at all.  Even better?  When I got into the labyrinth of the underground parking at my work, my new, silver best friend handled the 90 degree turns it takes to squeeze into the mirco stalls with surprising ease. I loved (LOOOVED!) the rear view cameras, too.  It made backing out against the behemoth SUV who had parked opposite me a breeze.  I could see exactly where I was in relation to everything in my path.  Frankly, it was one of my favorite features.  ( Shhh...I may or may not have backed into a parked trailer or pile of rebar or two in my time.)  And while I don’t have kids, I live in a condo complex FULL of kids who love playing the parking lot.  Every spring, I worry that one of those kids is going to zip behind me on a scooter in the .25 seconds I’m looking the other way. So, the feature that I enjoyed as a luxury for the week is literally a lifesaver.  I’ll say it outloud, I was falling in like pretty hard.

But the CR-V wasn’t just a pleasure to drive. The morning I’d come to pick Sterling (What? I’m just a girl who likes to name her rides...) up Wendell had shown me the a few of his bells and whistles.  In about 1 minute, we had linked my phone to the car stereo so that I could stream Pandora, iTunes, or even make a quick phone call.  The only downside was my uber-awkward chick music (**cough** Alanis Morissette? Who put that in my iTunes?!) blasting from the stereo once we got the blue-tooths talking.  Wendell was nice enough to pretend he didn’t notice and frankly, I was too busy getting good and drunk on that new car smell to switch songs.

The deluxe features didn’t end there, though. “Hey,” Wendell said, pointing to a green button by the steering wheel, “Push that.  It’s your Econ button. It’ll take a little away a from your power, but it gives you great fuel economy.  You won’t even notice.”  He was right. I didn’t notice a thing. I don’t know how much more giddy-up Sterling had compared to Sugar, but I’m lucky I didn’t get pulled over!  It drove so smoothly that I really had to pay attention to the speedometer. Driving to work every morning, I found myself zooming right along.  I can’t imagine what would happen if I turned off the Econ feature.  I had a wild urge to turn it off and completely turn him loose, but I resisted.  

I wasn’t the only one in digging my new ride.  I was actually stopped by a guy in parking lot who started asking all about the newest CR-V features.  When I showed him all the new perks, he looked a little disappointed when he had to go back to his older model, you guessed it, CR-V.  This is a vehicle with a fan base!   

Honestly, if I could justify it, I’d get one in a heartbeat. Mentally I added the Honda CR-V to my “cars-that-are-way-cooler-than-a-mini-van-but-just-as-practical” list.  It would have comfortably fit a couple of carseats, a stroller, groceries, 2x4s for that new fence project, and a happy couple in the front seat.  In short, Sterling was the perfect fling that really made me want to settle down so I could spend the rest of my life getting great fuel economy and vacuuming graham cracker crumbs.