From Bunny to Belle - Because they crash WELL!
Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 4:55 pm
Hi all! 
First, I wanted to share a pic of our "new" 2012 Pathfinder.
We've named her Belle. She had about 20K mi on her (which is Ok b/c the one she's replacing had close to 27K), but she is a silver edition and the kids love that she also has a DVD player. I'm feeling a bit spoiled as she has a lot more bells and whistles than the Pathfinder she's replacing. This is what she's replacing
...
This was Bunny...a very bare bones 2012 Pathfinder, but I loved her...bought her new with about 55mi on the odometer. She went on a number of road trips and camping trips in the short year or so that we had her. As for the destruction pics above...We had the whole family in her...about 2 mi from our house- on our way to the airport...and we were stopped at a red light. Some idiot in a Honda Element plowed into us and forced us into the F150 in front of us. They estimate the driver of the Element was going in the 60-70mph range when she hit us. When they took apart my Pathy to survey the damage...they found one badly kinked frame. All of the officers at the scene and the damage assessors for the various insurance companies said the BOF construction was the big factor in us being able to walk away from this nightmare.
It was a really long process with the insurance companies (over 1.5 mos!). In the process, one of my rentals was a 2013 Pathfinder. I essentially got a 2.5 week test drive.
In the end...I decided I just wanted "the same, but different." So, I kept an eye on all of the used ones popping up at the local dealerships in anticipation of getting the insurance $. The person driving this new one must have had a lead foot because they were averaging around 14mpg. 
I've boosted that average to just under 18mpg in about a week. Hoping to get Belle to the 21+ avg I had in Bunny before long.
In any event, I figured this would be a good place to share our new Pathy purchase as well as our crash story in our previous Pathfinder.
First, I wanted to share a pic of our "new" 2012 Pathfinder. We've named her Belle. She had about 20K mi on her (which is Ok b/c the one she's replacing had close to 27K), but she is a silver edition and the kids love that she also has a DVD player. I'm feeling a bit spoiled as she has a lot more bells and whistles than the Pathfinder she's replacing. This is what she's replacing
...This was Bunny...a very bare bones 2012 Pathfinder, but I loved her...bought her new with about 55mi on the odometer. She went on a number of road trips and camping trips in the short year or so that we had her. As for the destruction pics above...We had the whole family in her...about 2 mi from our house- on our way to the airport...and we were stopped at a red light. Some idiot in a Honda Element plowed into us and forced us into the F150 in front of us. They estimate the driver of the Element was going in the 60-70mph range when she hit us. When they took apart my Pathy to survey the damage...they found one badly kinked frame. All of the officers at the scene and the damage assessors for the various insurance companies said the BOF construction was the big factor in us being able to walk away from this nightmare.
It was a really long process with the insurance companies (over 1.5 mos!). In the process, one of my rentals was a 2013 Pathfinder. I essentially got a 2.5 week test drive.
In the end...I decided I just wanted "the same, but different." So, I kept an eye on all of the used ones popping up at the local dealerships in anticipation of getting the insurance $. The person driving this new one must have had a lead foot because they were averaging around 14mpg. I've boosted that average to just under 18mpg in about a week. Hoping to get Belle to the 21+ avg I had in Bunny before long. In any event, I figured this would be a good place to share our new Pathy purchase as well as our crash story in our previous Pathfinder.