Good-bye to the Juke?

So, we're gonna drive to Guatemala this spring to live there for a while. When I say that to people, I have to admit that I get a little rush watching their look of surprise. We are headed to Lake Atitlan, just a couple hours south of Mexico, but saying we're driving through Mexico doesn't haven't the same impact...oh those important last hours!

Today I learned that in order to take your vehicle to Mexico/Central America, you need to own it outright. Some of the forums say you can get a letter from your lender, but on occasion that's not good enough. That changes everything for us. We bought a Nissan Juke about a year ago and I LOVE it, but it's not paid off yet. So, we either need to pay it completely off or look at buying something else.

Let's be honest, my husband is not a fan of my Juke. When we bought it in fact, it was supposed to be his new car but within a week he decided he would rather drive our Civic Hybrid. I sacrificed and took the new car. ;-)

However, until we learned about the certificate of title rule, I think I had him mostly talked into taking the Juke. We researched some rooftop cargo boxes and trailer hitch boxes to expand the amount of space for our stuff. I was excited about taking the Juke, with it's all-wheel drive and zippiness, I think it would have handled the trip well.

But, if we are going to have to pay it off, we might as well investigate all our options. Back to those online forums, and I find "Pan Am Notes" about a couple taking the Pan Am Highway from Canada through South America. They have a Toyota Tundra with a pop-up and had good things to say about the availability of parts and services everywhere because Toyota is popular.

Looking at used Toyotas, Ken confesses he has always wanted an FJ Cruiser and could we take a look to see what they sell for and what the gas mileage is?

That was all it took - lots of space, sturdy, great clearance and off-road capabilities, an electric plug in the car, decent mileage, and honestly, it just looks fun. Guess I need to add selling both our cars and finding a Cruiser to our list of trip "to-do's!"