About a week after wrecking our Honda Accord my wife and I have purchased a pre-owned Volvo C70 convertible. It has all the bells and whistles one could dream of and drives like a dream with the top down. The car is reportedly the safest convertible in the world, a comforting fact given that my last convertible, a Mazda Miata, got totaled when I was chased off the road by a truck.

I’ve always admired Volvo’s reputation for safety and durability and so when it came time to get another car, it was on our short list. Volvo’s motto is: Volvo. For Life. The company started business in 1927 and its founders are quoted as saying, “Cars are driven by people. Therefore, the guiding principle behind everything we make at Volvo is—and must remain—safety.” And the average lifetime age of a Volvo is 20 years, so they last.

For inquiring minds, the car is a 2.4 liter, 5 cylinder, 197 horsepower, turbocharged 5- speed automatic, soft-top convertible. As my wife and I cruised home from church this morning with the top down, we were reminded how much we had missed owning a convertible. It is safe to say that we look forward to making many more such memories.

My wife and I bought our first new car on January 2, 1996. It was a burgundy Honda Accord LX that we babied from day one. And it more than lived up to its reputation for quality and dependability. But it met its demise a couple days ago as my wife was commuting home from work. It was raining and the car in front of her abruptly stopped so she had to hit the brakes, causing her to hit the other car.

Fortunately, my wife escaped the accident unscathed, but our car was totaled, as the attached picture attests. Unfortunately, we had discontinued our collision coverage on it about a year ago to save money so we’ll be car shopping for an extra good deal. We put about 188,000 miles on our old car over the course of 13 years. And I am praying that our next car, while not likely a new one, will be as good an investment as our last one.