Wheels

For quite some time now, we've been in need of a newer vehicle. Our car is quite the beater, and I'm amazed it's lasted as long as it has.

Our needs were pretty basic. We needed something reliable for multi-provincial road trips. We needed more seats, so we can give rides, but we needed to be able to remove those seats to be able to haul larger items - including modestly sized furniture, if necessary. A mini-van would suit our needs, though there were some crossover vehicles and SUV's that also would meet our needs. We were already familiar with the Dodge Caravan, which I liked, but I wanted to try other vehicles to compare.

The girls and I had done some test drives. We weren't going to get anything without their input. However, as a stay at home mom, I can't actually buy a vehicle. My husband has to be along for that. He has not, however, been able to come along with us to kick tires.

Until today.

At first, we were going to an area where there's a lot of dealerships within blocks of each other, but on the opposite side of downtown from us is a dealership we'd been meaning to check out, so we stopped there along the way.

Several hours later, we left with a 2006 Grand Caravan.

So much for just test driving something and going someplace else!

We don't actually own it. We haven't paid a dime towards it. We've signed some papers, but things won't be finalized until the end of the week. Until then, the deal can still fall through. Meanwhile, they have our car as a trade in, which is really quite laughable. They gave us $400 for it. We paid $50 for it. I'm amazed they took it at all!

It's a newer vehicle than I planned on getting, so the cost is higher, even with the sale price. In the long term, though, that's to our benefit. The thing only as 29,000 km on it, which is practically nothing. It's still under warranty. The price was higher than I wanted to pay, but we'll be able to manage. Again, long term, it'll be better for us. It doesn't hurt that as of this month, we've finished paying off the shares for our co-op, so our housing charge is now lower, starting next month. The down payment we'll be making on top of the trade in is pretty minimal. Considerably less than what we had to pay the last time we bought a car at a dealership.

They sure did want to make that sale! Personally, as much as I liked the vehicle, I was content to walk away at any point. Between that and the sight of my husband's new income, they *really* didn't want to lose us as customers.

I think we did all right. I hate having car payments again, but at this point, we need a newer vehicle sooner than we can save up to either buy one outright, or put down a more significant down payment.

Until the paperwork is done and cash changes hands, though, it's just a really nice loan. They even made sure the gas tank was full.

Once that's done, we're already talking about making some day trips outside the city, and will be working things out as far as timing goes with my husband's sister, so that we can head back to Manitoba and have a bit of a family reunion. We won't be making it out next month, as I'd originally hoped. My husband is talking October, but I'd love it if we could swing September.

One thing's for sure. Trips will be a lot more comfortable! Especially for the girls. They've got individual bucket seats instead of the bench type seat other ones we'd tried had. They can actually see, now, too. Plus, the A/C in this thing actually works, unlike our car. They're the stow-n-go seats, too, which will be handy.

On the down side, we actually have a vehicle that's worth stealing again. That was one plus of owning a beater. It looked so crappy, we could've left it unlocked on the street downtown, and it would be ignored. Not so with this pretty thing.

I think it'll work out all right.