As you saw in my last post, I was involved in a bit of an accident recently. I’m back to normal, but my Jetta isn’t. In fact, after initially saying they were going to fix it the insurance company decided to total it out.

I was a bit concerned at first because I was worried about having to replace the first new car I’d ever bought. It had all the options I wanted, and the exact color combination I wanted. I bought new so I wouldn’t have to settle on any of those decisions. And then suddenly it looked like I was going to have to.

As I began my car search, I had a few models in mind — either stick with a Jetta or maybe move up to a Passat or an Audi A4. I was amazed how rare the dark blue/tan leather combination was! I searched cars.com, autotrader.com, CarMax and elsewhere. The cars I saw ones I saw were either older (no warranty left), without leather, or I’d have to settle on a different color combo. Saw some blue with grey, some black with tan, etc.

After test driving a blue/grey Passat Friday night, I found the perfect car on Saturday morning. I walked into the Autobarn - Evanston’s used VW showroom and there it was!

2002 VW Passat GLS - same exact color combination as my Jetta, same turbo engine, same options (except single CD instead of changer), same everything basically. But 12k less miles. And I was able to get it for a price that only extended my payments a few months. I really hit the jackpot on this one. I’ll post some pics soon…