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| I loved that car. I now drive a newer Subaru Legacy wagon, that I don't like nearly as much. |
My older two kids were 3 and almost 2, and in huge Britax carseats (that I bought because they went up to 65 lbs - huge mistake. My 10 year old just now weighs 65 lbs and would kill me if I made him ride in a 5 point harness. Totally should have gone with the smaller, cheaper Roundabout instead of the Marathon).
We needed a bigger vehicle.
We'd had a suburban in the past, but didn't like the gas mileage. We had also recently moved from California to the Portland, OR (more environmentally friendly) area, and didn't want to be known forever as the irresponsible Californians (who I was told by more than one person, "move to Oregon and want to take over").
So we bought the most uncool thing to drive - the minivan.
We could have got a cool minivan (the Odyssey, Sienna, etc.) with lots of bells and whistles and automatic things, but I thought it was kind of like that (obnoxious) "lipstick on a pig" saying.
All the fancy couldn't hide that it was, in fact, a (freaking) minivan.
So, we bought the absolute cheapest van possible - current model year, but used with low miles.
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| 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan (this is not ours, but looks just like it) |
Our goal for this thing was to use it to haul our kids (and their huge carseats) for 10 years.
It fit the bill (and also came in handy to car pool, chauffeur around out of town guests, load up a ton of crap at Costco, etc.).
The kids can eat and drink in it, climb in with their muddy boots, and not have to sit right against each other (that is huge).
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| My kids love this nasty, cheap van. |
My husband broke the side mirror off backing out of the garage (awhile ago and we never fixed it). My sister dented the side while using it to pick up our kids (as a favor to us). We never fixed that either.
It's just a minivan - it doesn't need to look pretty. It needs to do its job.
It needs to do its job for 3 more years. Right now, it is exactly 7 (bought in July 2005). It's been paid off for a long time, and I want to squeeze all we can out of it.
In order to do its job safely, we need to take it in to the shop from time to time. Now is one of those (so not fun) times.
It's been there for three days.
While I'm at work, my husband and kids have spent the week at home, or walking to do things (2 miles to reach the closest park or shop). That is a seriously long time, but minivan rentals are $$, and all 3 of our kids crammed into the backseat of a regular car is a nightmare (we tried it this weekend - I think my head still hurts from that).
It will be all ready for us to pick up tomorrow afternoon, and our bank account will take a serious hit.
But - it is so, so worth it.
We'll have it back in good (enough) shape (with the mirror finally fixed, too), ready to do its job for another three years (I hope).
Then goodbye forever to this, and any other minivan.
We just did the same thing with my odyssey. It's 7 years old and we own it (for awhile now) and I opted to make the $1700 worth of repairs vs. buying a new/used one.
ReplyDeleteUnlike you, I love my van!! I rock the minivan. I don't care how 'mom' I look in it because it carries everything I need and then some.
Minivan drivers unite! :)
They really do serve their purpose well. Maybe if I had the Odyssey, I'd love mine ;)
DeleteI love your attitude about making the most of this van for 10 years and then running away from it as fast as you can.
ReplyDeleteIf it makes you feel better, we drive a 1997 4-Runner with 220,000 miles. It occasionally has to go into the shop, too. Or, like this month, it has to go into the shop two different times. But, even with the hits to our wallets, it still costs way less than owning a newer vehicle.
BTW, what on earth takes three days to fix? Our mechanic almost always fixes our truck in the same day. Only once has he had to keep it overnight.
The costs of new, or newer cars is scary to me. I'm hoping that my subaru holds out for 300K miles.
DeleteWe go to a local, very throrough, very well respected, very resonable, and very slow mechanic. Of course my husband and I are far to nice to ask him to hurry a bit, but may have to next time.
I made the same "mistake" with the Britax Marathon carseat. Our 5 year old still uses hers in our van, but has just a highback booster in our jeep. She doesn't like the "big" carseat, but I'm keeping her in it as long as possible because of how much we paid for it! :)
ReplyDeleteToo funny - we did the same thing, could not fit our car seats in the Subaru outback and had to get a minivan (did you also have the dogbone pattern carseat?!). We went with the Toyota Sienna, b/c we live in MA and at the time it was the only minivan with 4 wheel drive, which we felt safer having in snowstorms.
ReplyDeleteIt's a 2004 Sienna and we just put $3500 into it. Yikes!! In previous economic times, we would've bought a new car instead of putting that much into it, but for us, for now, we decided to repair it and hope it lasts a few more years.
Our other car is a Toyota Rav-4, which easily fits 3 across the back, gets decent mileage, and the trunk holds a fair amount. My husband and I fight over who drives it!
Congrats to your family for making it through without a car for a few days!
Oh, I so relate. We got our minivan when I was pregnant with my third. I really wanted an SUV, but the minivan is SO much cheaper in every way. Now we plan to run that thing into the ground... then I will gladly say goodbye.
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