Recently, my wife and I were rudely awoken by a phone call at two in the morning. I sat in bed listing to half of an urgent phone conversation. It was something about my brother-in-law's vehicle. They found the car, but could not get a hold of Matthew (my brother-in-law). Huh? Was he okay?

After my wife hung up the phone, she told me that the police had found Matthew's car torched and abandoned in another city. Apparently they had stolen it right from the driveway. She said that Matthew was fine though. What? I thought he could not be reached? Oh, he was off in Las Vegas? No, no one told me.

Aside from being without a vehicle, he is doing okay. I had joked that I had almost wished my vehicle had been stolen. I had originally bought my SUV, a Dodge Durango, shortly after my wife had a few accidents on wintry roads. As I was working out of the house at the time, I thought that she could use that vehicle when the weather was rough.

Of course, I never expected that I would get a new job the next year that came with an hour commute. At one point I had to work a second job, just to offset the fuel costs and the increasing maintenance. Last month, we paid it off in full so I am glad that nothing happened to it. I was expecting that as soon as it was paid for, it would get damaged or stolen.

A few weeks ago, we decided to trade the Durango in for a Kia Sportage. With the "Cash for Clunkers" deal and other incentives, we saved about $7,000. It is a bit smaller than the Durango. In addition, it is missing some of the features that the Durango had. However, it gets between 25% and 50% better gas mileage.

This time, instead of buying a vehicle without telling my wife (yes, I will never live that mistake down), I let her do all the research. While I was uneasy at first, I am pleasantly surprised at how her choice turned out.