Since the passing of my Passat, we were down to one car. We wanted to search for a new car, but were in no hurry to do so, as it is cheaper to only have one. In today’s gotta-have-it-now culture, we wanted to go slow, do our research, and if the right deal came along, only then would we buy a second car.

After reading Dave Ramsey’s book: The Total Money Makeover, we’ve completely changed our finances to align them with his ideas. Because of that, we are completely debt free, and because of his book, we would be able to write a check for our new car at the dealer — no financing. Do you need a money makeover? Click the link on his book and the $16 you spend will change your life. Forever.

Because of the way our jobs work out and in our unique situation, we could have actually kept to having only one car for a while. Yes, it’s easier to have two, or even three, but we really only needed one. A lot of us Americans have gotten ourselves into trouble because we over-extend our finances because we think we need a lot of stuff. Check out GlobalRichList.com and put in your annual salary and see where you rank in the world. You’ll find that even the poorest among us are still vastly wealthier financially than most everyone else in the world. (A kid working for minimum wage at McDonalds is in the top 12% in the world.)

Those last two paragraphs kept us mindful that we didn’t want to just run out and spend more money to bring us back to status quo or even to keep up with the Joneses, but if the deal was just right, we’d make a move. (By the way, as Ramsey says, never try to keep up with the Joneses, because they’re broke anyway.)

We have been so happy with our Hyundai Sonata that we wanted to give their smaller model a chance. Everyone loves to talk about how good Honda and Toyota are, but the thing missing from that praise is the HUGE markup one pays for the name of those cars. Sure they are good and reliable, but at what price? We feel that Hyundai is the dark horse in the race (but hopefully not the dark horse and rider of the apocalypse riding across Armageddon’s plain). You get the best warranty in the industry, a car maker that will take your car back in the first year of ownership if you lose your job, a car that is built in Alabama by Americans, and a company that is not owned by and taking orders from the U.S. Government and Barack Obama.

We looked at Civics and Corollas and then laughed at the high prices/miles. Hey, if you own one of these, power to you, but we didn’t want to pay those prices. Our gamble is that Hyundai will be good on their warranty word and will have built just as good a car. My guess is that when GM and Chrysler are just a distant memory, the foreign cars, along with Ford and Saturn (owned now by Roger Penske) will be doing well. If you haven’t given Hyundai a chance, give them another look. They totally redesigned their models in 2007 and you won’t go wrong for the money.

When we searched the internet, we found some really good deals on the Elantra. After test driving two, we decided that it was a fun, roomy, affordable car that would work for us and we’d keep an eye out for one. Laura found a great looking one in Wheeling, WV, about two hours away. After calling and finding out a little about the car, we drove over today to take it for a spin. It was only driven for five months, was a 2008 with less than 14K on the odometer and was listed for $2,000 less that what both Kelley Blue Book and NADAsaid it was worth. It was clean, not a nick on it, had alloy wheels, leather steering wheel, premium sound, and best of all, as a Dallas Cowboys fan, it was the right colors, too. The only “downer” was that it is a manual transmission and Laura doesn’t (yet) drive one.