While Jonah, Elisha and I were busy at the park playground, who should march up to us out of nowhere but Bret, Susan, Brama and Poppers? Turns out Bret—who’s been borrowing our Honda Civic since his VW Golf died last week—had finally found the car he was looking for a in black 2000 Toyota 4Runner 4 Dr SR5 4WD. I gleefully turned the kids over to Brama, Poppers, and Susan and hopped on in for a ride.

It’s nice! Seats five, has rear split fold-down seats for gobs of storage, and appears to handle very well. I guess technically it’s an SUV, but the 17/20 city/highway mileage seems pretty good for the SUV category. Here’s a review of it.

Personally, I’m just happy to have Bret in a vehicle with anti-lock brakes and airbags. And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the shift (pun intended) from a manual to an automatic makes a big difference in some of the problems he’s been having with his back.

Sweet ride!