Cars.com + Love Zahra #NewCarFace

As a blogger I get a lot of emails to participate in various promotional campaigns, and most of the time I have to pass because I just don’t have the time or it isn’t really something I am excited about. When I heard about this offer from Cars.com, I thought oh yeah! Who wouldn’t want to hear about this!?

So if you’ve got a second to possibly get your car loan paid off, or even an immediate family member’s – Cars.com is having a contest and you could easily win! All you have to do is take a picture of yourself with your new car (anything new or used that was purchased after 2012) and share the pic on social media with hashtag #newcarface, tagging @carsdotcom when you do!

Scroll down for a special car story from my childhood, along with my “new car face” pic as an example!
Note: This post has been sponsored by Cars.com. All views expressed are my own.

While I was growing up my dad drove a bright green Toyota Corolla hatchback, a car that he had owned since college. He also drove us across country in that car when we moved from the East Coast to California when I was just two years old. My dad, always the adventurer, decided to stop at every major attraction point along the way during that cross-country trek, making the trip twice as long as it should have been – much to my mother’s dismay – we would later hear my mother complain about that trip often. She was taking care of all of us crazy kids and subsequently getting migraines, while dad enjoyed himself, oblivious to her suffering. My dad loved that car, and we all hated it, and all five of us kids jokingly referred to it as “The Green Frog”.

Dad never wanted to get rid of “The Green Frog”, despite our constant pleas. Now that I am an adult I totally understand why – no car payment! He definitely wouldn’t have had all the options we have these days, like being able to get an instant cash offer for your car, either. Then one day fate would change everything. Some thief would steal my dad’s car right out of his work parking lot, proceed in to a high-speed chase with the police that was captured as a top story on the 5 O’Clock news, and ultimately crash in to a guard rail – leaving the car totaled and beyond repair. I remember that when my dad heard the news about his car, he started looking at the best place to buy car parts online. The car garage told him that it was damaged beyond repair but my dad was insistent that it could be fixed. That day “The Green Frog” was no more. We were ecstatic.

With the Green Frog out of action, we got a temporary courtesy car from the garage – a Honda Civic. I remember we had it for about a month and it was already a massive upgrade compared to the Toyota. It was quite a new car so it came with one of those Honda Civic car covers to keep it looking new and each night, my dad would check for scratches as if it was his own car! My siblings and I weren’t even allowed to eat or drink while in it because he didn’t want us to ruin the interior. But we couldn’t keep it forever and I remember how excited I was when we started our search for a new car. It started with a great deal of research (read this post from The Katy News and studied several car magazines) that goes into a car purchase. We were quite excited about visiting the dealerships with all of the rows of shiny cars with the new car smell, loaded with all of the latest technology of the day – like power windows and cd players. We decided on a brand new Toyota Camry, and we left the dealership with huge smiles on our faces, making promises to each other that unlike with “The Green Frog”, this car we would keep washed, waxed, and vacuumed at all times, and that we would never eat snacks in it. Our promises may have been short-lived, but the memory of getting that new car will always stick with me.

Cars.com wants you to show them your #newcarface, for a chance to get your entire car loan paid off – up to $25,000!

To enter the contest, all you have to do is the following:

Take a picture of yourself with your new car, share that pic on social media (Facebook, instagram, or twitter) with the hashtag #newcarface, and also tagging @carsdotcom. That’s it!

Here’s mine – with Adam and our new car!