Beware! This is dangerous thinking. My sister and her husband thought of buying a new car and they will be picking up their high end self driving Tesla on June 9.  Pat Oberdorf thought it might be time to buy a new car and she now owns a Chevy Volt, electric car. Marlene and Garland have a beautiful maroon colored Lexus in their garage.  Bob and I thought his six  year old Altima was a bit outdated and we now own a Honda Accord Hybrid.
We are people who generally are of the school of auto ownership that believes you buy a car and drive it until it poops out.  I remember a Rambler American I owned 50 years ago that I literally drove to the entrance of my tract home community, parked the dead vehicle and had it towed away to the junk yard.  Today 200,000 miles on a vehicle means you might own the car for 20 years, well maybe 10.
I bought my Toyota Prius 2012 V new,  and even though it has a few signs of wear,  I will  keep it indefinitely.  You can imagine my surprise that the V has been discontinued.  Anyone that has one loves its spaciousness, its gas saving  attribute, and its ease of operation. Go figure.
As we investigated the choices today, we were surprised to learn that the sedan is on its way out.  The SUV is the chosen vehicle, whether hybrid, gas or electric, everyone wants one.
Well, not everyone.   How it happened  that we went from 0 to 100 in two weeks was that we realized how behind the times we were.  Perhaps it is Elon Musk’s fault.  We may as well give him a little more notoriety.  He’s gotten us so hyped up about having a driverless car that all the car manufacturers are outdoing themselves with new safety features.  Who knew?
Thinking about purchasing a new car led us to Consumer Reports, on-line chat sites and visits to Toyota, and Honda dealerships.  We were uncertain about the reliability of Tesla, at least the $35,000 model.  And then it happened. The Honda Accord Hybrid has been voted the car of the year.  It is sitting in our driveway in all its specialness.  It is touted to be a plus in fuel economy, room comfort, safety, high tech features, and quality construction.  It has dual zone auto climate control, keyless ignition, Bluetooth, rearview cameras, blind spot monitoring display, power driver seat, six speaker sound, iPod/USB audio interface. heated front seat, sunroof,  forward collision and a lane departure warning system.
My feeling is that I have an entry level luxury sedan at a mid priced sedan cost.  With all the safety features, I think Honda has taken the best of the Musk world and put all of us on the road with technology for the 21st century.
Bob, being the engineer he is, began studying all the features- reading the manual.  It happened that he intended to sit in the car and test all innovations.  That was his intention. The next day he went to drive the car and found the windows and sunroof open.  He had not locked the car the night before.  He thought someone had entered the car that was parked in the driveway and opened the windows.  I thought that was absurd.  Furthermore, one can not open the windows without having the key fob.  Quite a mystery!  Looking for the simplest explanation, I contended that Bob had been sleepwalking, sat in the car fiddling  with the new features and then went back to sleep forgetting to lock the car. But that wasn’t it.  By holding the key that unlocks the car a few seconds it will open the windows and skylight from a distance.  In that you can inadvertently hold that part of the key fob when it is in your purse or pocket, you can leave your car open to the weather or a thief.  Even the greatest technological advances sometimes go too far. Why do you need to open your car windows from afar?
My conclusion is that buying a new technologically sophisticated vehicle cannot account for the foibles of the person driving it no matter how many safety features it has, And even the designers are getting carried away. However, all the more reason to have extra sets of eyes reading all the cars in your blind spot, in front of you, behind you and on in the next lanes.  These features come in very handy if you decide to drive while not yet fully awake or aware of your cars capabilities.

Ellen Blaufarb is a marriage family therapist.

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