It only took 3 ½ years but I finally bought the Kia Soul.
Not long after I started this thread I bought a Honda Civic Sport sedan. It served me quite well since then but as my kids have grown older (and bigger) and we’ve acquired more furbabies it became quite impractical. I drove it with dedication, however, and kept it meticulously maintained. I kept all the receipts for everything I did to it: all scheduled and recommended maintenance, all fuel-ups, even noting in the little notebook that I used to track gas mileage when I washed the car. Whenever I mentioned to someone that I kept the receipt for literally every single thing I did to the car, the usual result was an eye roll. Such dedication to my obsessive/compulsive disorder paid off, however. I paid right at $20K for the Civic in December 2019, and yesterday the Kia dealer offered me $17K for it on trade. I told them to make it $18K and they had a deal. They didn’t even have to think about it. Deal. I’m thinking I should’ve asked for a bit more. So I sold the Civic after 38 months and 46,900K miles for 90% of what I paid for it. Had I bothered to sell it private party I likely would’ve been able to get more for it than what I paid for it in 2019.
So now I have a “Neptune Blue” Kia Soul GT Line with the technology package upgrade, which adds a Harmon Kardon stereo, tilt and sliding sun roof, and fog lights. The fog lights were a mandatory feature so I had to get some superfluous stuff to get them. Having said that I really like the heated seats and lumbar adjustment so I’m definitely happy I got the upgrade package. Climbing in and out is much easier and more comfortable than it was in the Civic and I (and my kids) can sit in the back without feeling too cramped.
I miss the 6-speed manual of the Civic as well as the superior gas mileage but other than those quite minor things I’m very happy with the Soul. It’s already proven itself to be more useful than the Civic: loading up a cart full of groceries today was much, much easier than it was with the Civic.