Saying good-bye to an old friend

The time has come for our family to say good-bye to our one and only mini-van.

Less than two months after we moved to Michigan, Jared's car died. And we had to get another one. Fortunately, we found something that would do the trick and not break the bank as we had just started Jared's first master's degree and had NO source of income.

We were a little distraught when, about 6 months later, the car I was driving overheated to the point that it was in no condition to be driven while I had both little boys with me and was about 30 minutes away from home. I was at Kinkos doing something for the Primary Presidency. That's all I remember. That and the fact that we needed another vehicle and PDQ (pretty darn quick). Living in Michigan meant we were about 20-30 minutes minimum from where we needed to be...the university, the high school where Jared was a trainer for, our ward chapel. And Jared's hours working late with the sports teams were such that we had to have two vehicles. And no real transit system to speak of. We just couldn't do it with 1 vehicle. And I'll be the first to admit it. I didn't want to.

Turns out, Jared had just heard a day or two prior on the radio that there was a dealer in Plainwell, MI (not too far up the road from us...you know, about 20-30 minutes :) that was running a special and would take a trade-in and give you $2,000...no questions asked! That was HUGE to us since we had no liquid savings at all.

Would you believe they actually towed our non-working car from Kinkos to the dealer (a good 45-60 min. drive) for no charge?!

It was a no-brainer that we would want to invest in a bigger vehicle, like a van, to accommodate our growing family. But swallowing the pill of a much larger car payment would be tough.

There were 2 used mini-vans under $20,000. A navy blue one and a maroon one. Just on color alone, I wanted the blue one. We have had a red car, a purple car and a maroon car. That was my only wish...no hue of red what.so.ever. But as the dealer guys were trying to do some number crunching for us with the blue van, we did a little exploring. The blue van, was a blueberry on wheels. Oh my lands. It was blue EVERY.THING! Blue vinyl, blue carpets, blue upholstery. It was a little much, truthfully. Then we took a look at the maroon van. The interior was at least a decent gray tone inside. As much as I didn't want another red vehicle, I didn't want to be singing the blues for the next ten years either. And...the maroon van, because it had more miles, was cheaper. *sigh*

So...we became the new owners of a maroon mini-van. (Jared promised me the next vehicle wouldn't be any color of red and he honored that promise :) Jared was hoping he could delay the purchase of a van until after he was 30 years old. But it was not to be. (I had to scan this picture in because it pre-dates our digital camera days and maybe there's a better way to get it to show up on the blog, but I'm lame, so it is what it is). That's our 3-year-old Jake standing there with Jared outside my in-laws' home in central Illinois a few weeks after we got the van.

This van is now 11 years old and the time has come for us to retire it and get a new car.

But what would we replace it with??

Having to fill two truck tanks is not exactly conducive for our budget at the moment. Not to mention we forgot about Jake needing a full case of braces in the next month....so no dream truck for Jared this time. Maybe when we retire :)

But we obviously needed a vehicle with 7 seats so when Jared takes the suburban for youth outings or scout camp, etc. I could still haul the kids around in it. And...he was hoping for one that had more clearance underneath than the van and as much cargo room as possible behind the 3rd row so he could feel comfortable taking it hunting. Because yes, I did forbid him to throw a dead animal in the back of MY dream car. It would also need to be 4WD or AWD. A roof rack and towing package were also on our wish list.

We checked out two vehicles last weekend. First on Friday night on our way back from the temple and then Saturday night after Jared worked at the urgent care since those dealerships were fortunately open until 9pm. We were pretty smitten with the 2012 Hyundai Vera Cruz that had 700 miles on it and was loaded to the brim with extra options. It was also well below our price point. (The 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe is now becoming a 7 passenger vehicle and replacing the Vera Cruz model. Therefore, they are trying to get rid of them--they had 3 on the lot--and reduced them by $10,000.) It had everything we wanted and much, much more. It did feel more like a car, however. But even though he still had a Honda Pilot left to cross off the list, Jared said on Sunday that he was feeling like we should get the Vera Cruz and forget the Pilot. This vehicle purchase was Jared's baby, not mine, but I suggested he still look at the Pilot, otherwise, he would always wonder about it.

So that's what we did on Monday since the Beaverton Infiniti dealership closes super early...at 7pm. As we approached the entrance, we felt extremely under dressed. And I was IN a dress! That was THEEE fanciest dealership I have ever set foot in. You know it's fancy when they offer you some coffee or a soda. (The waiting room had leather couches, a super large screen TV, a mini fridge with an assortment of canned sodas, a Keurig coffee maker with a variety of flavors and fresh baked pastries and cookies free for the taking!)  I was relieved when we left the building where the bathrooms are fancier than my own to go take a look at the Pilot. Interestingly enough they had two Pilots. Virtual twin vehicles for the exact same price. They were even the same color! One was a 2012 with 12,000 miles on it and the other was a 2011 with 26,000 miles. We test drove the 2012 since we would rather have the newer car with fewer miles. But when we returned to the lot, we discovered that a) it only had a hitch and b) no roof rails to get cross bars on for a car topper. We wondered why the 2011 was the same price, but older and more miles. We learned the reason is because it has the roof rails already, a towing package, in addition to a navigation system and back-up camera and sensors. The 2011 is the "Touring" edition and is 4WD.

The Pilot definitely had more cargo space behind the 3rd row seats and it sat much higher than the van or equivalent. Because it is more boxier in body style, it also feels more like a truck than a car.

While the sales lady was running our credit report Monday evening, we decided that the Pilot was the better fit for his needs and even though they would only give us $1500 for the van as a trade-in (figures), we reserved it with our credit card because we were waiting for a check to come.

Jared was chomping at the bit this week. He was afraid if we waited any longer the Pilot wouldn't be there even though we were assured it would be. I could understand his sense of urgency. He was so close, yet so far. The check still hadn't come yet, but we worked out an arrangement that the dealer was fine with. So yesterday afternoon, over Jared's lunch hour, our van was replaced with a 2011 Honda Pilot. Not Jared's dream truck, but a pretty good second option. A super fancy second option actually. (I was teasing him saying, "How come your non-dream car is fancier than my real dream car??" He deserves it though and at least I get to drive it every once in a while).

As Calvin and JJ and I walked past the van for the last time in the dealer parking lot, I was surprised how sentimental I was becoming over an old, tired car. But then I realized we've had this van for 10 years...almost as long as our 4 younger kids. Cooper was a baby when we got it. We've brought 2 babies home in this van and filled it with 4 before the suburban took over as the family bus. It brought our little family 2300+ miles from Michigan to Oregon in 2004 to seek a better life so Jared could attend PA school. It's been a good friend to us for all these years and has taken us so many wonderful places.

Above all, I was still moved by the gratitude I have felt all along...that the Lord was SO wonderful to us and  enabled a poor starving grad-student family to purchase a mini-van that we needed and would use for many years. And somehow, it worked with our budget.

A fun little twist in this story. Jared and I work with a gal named Kim at the office. She has also been wanting to upgrade her car to a bigger vehicle. Jared had mentioned the 2013 Santa Fe is now a 7 passenger vehicle and she was pretty excited about that. I told her about the new Vera Cruz and our test drive with it on Monday when I was at the office. She and her husband had already gone to the dealer to peek at the 5 passenger Santa Fe the same weekend we did since the 2013s aren't on the lots yet.

While we drive home from Beaverton Infiniti Monday night, I texted Kim and told her that we were going to get the Pilot instead, but that meant the Vera Cruz was still available. I told her to take a look at it and to make sure and ask for the sales guy we had. He did a good job.

Jared got a call Tuesday from the sales guy at Hyundai. Jared was kind of dreading telling him that we decided to go in another direction (it was sort of sad to walk away from a brand new vehicle--something Jared and I have never had--and a great price!). But when the guy knew it was Jared calling him back he said, "Hey Jared, I just wanted to thank you for sending your friends my way. They just drove off in their brand new Vera Cruz."