Minivan Madness

First let me start off by saying I've always been a bit of an image obsessed rebel. As soon as I moved out of my parents house I started to get piercings (okay, piercING...I almost fainted after the navel, and every time I looked at it for a couple of weeks, so I decided maybe piercings weren't the best way for me to tick my parents off), cut my hair into a mohawk, died my hair an array of different colors, including maroon, purple, black, and green (though the last one was not on purpose), and dressed in predominantly black clothing (the black clothing thing lasted about a month before image obsession kicked into high gear and I HAD to buy something that was an actual color...pink.) Well, it's been quite some time since I've been 19/20 (let's not talk about how long it's been, shall we? It's a bit painful.), and, I am still an image obsessed rebel.

With the advent of our 3rd child (due next month), I had to let go of yet another way I rebel against the suburbanite housewife norm...I had to fully concede to myself and to another van-aphobic (my husband) that we were powerless over being prolific, and this had made our life (at least the transportation part of it) unmanageable. It was high time we got a minivan. I was loathe to even consider the very idea (told my dear husband when we were dating that if he ever wanted a divorce, to simply utter the word "minivan" when I was within earshot) for many years. With gas prices the way they are ($3.36 p/gallon here, people!) and the cost of maintaining, let alone buying an SUV with a 3rd row of seating, I had two choices...1)bankrupt our growing family with a $600 p/month car payment and a $300 p/month gasoline expense because I'm too cool to drive anything less than a tricked out SUV with a giant engine, OR 2)Suck it up and get a used minivan with a decent array of features and (hopefully) better gas mileage than the monstrous SUV's I prefer. So, the search began.

I am relentless once an idea has taken hold. I have never been able to let go of anything without teeth and claw marks (and quite possibly a little blood) on it. So, I searched craigslist for hours every day, trying to find the perfect vehicle for the perfect price, and then contemplating how I would negotiate the price to something so absurdly low that I would walk away from the dealership smiling, and the car salesman would curl up into the fetal position and suck his thumb when I left. 1st dealership I went to, they wanted 16K for a minivan that was admittedly, very nice, but I was not paying that for a 5 year old vehicle w/over 70K miles on it. I don't care if it had just about every feature known to man! I offered 13,500. No deal. 14k. Nope. Alright, so I left. If they could be that inflexible, so could I!

Next dealership I went to, they wanted 16 K for a 3 year old vehicle with 45K miles. Okay, I'll admit I'm cheap, but I offered 12,500, but, come on, it was a Hyundai! No deal. 13K. Nope. 13,500. Nope. 13,750. Nope. 14K. They were pretty positive they could "give" me the vehicle for that amount. So I had my husband take a look. He liked it. Didn't so much care for the price, but it was within the budget, so we were about to go forward when...the 2nd in command sales manager says his boss really wasn't happy with the 14K figure, and was it possible we could be more flexible. Uh, no. Bluebook for the thing is about 13,500 -15,500, so 14 was more than fair, considering it was the mid grade model. Oh wait! We have one we just listed for 12K! It's still decent, it has 66K miles, and it's the base model, same year, though. *Clairessa rolls her eyes, shakes her head, sighs* Okay, let's have a look. It looked great for 12K. Needed to be redetailed badly, but it was alright. I would have been okay with driving it. Until...my husband turned the key in the ignition. Oh. Dear. Lord. It was the sound of a thousand nuns running their fingernails down a chalkboard, it was what evil must sound like to those who know it's voice. I turned to my husband and just said, "No." and got out of the car. They sent someone out to take a look and see what the problem was, and they said it was the power steering. Call me ignorant, but why would power steering have anything to do with that noise since it started as soon as my husband had turned the dang key?? He wasn't steering.

Whatever. Went to another dealership. They had advertised an 04 minivan at a decent price, so, off we went. We get there, and the salesman tells us he can't find it on their lot. Um, what?? How do you lose a car???? Especially one which is obviously in your inventory because you were advertising it! We looked at a few cars, all ridiculously overpriced (but I've become a real cheapskate since becoming pregnant with a 3rd child), and left to look at another car down the street @ another dealership. I had been lusting after this vehicle for about a week, and was really excited because I knew as soon as my husband took a look and test drove it, I would be riding home in my tricked out minivan, better than any SUV. Well, it had sold just hours before we got there. I wanted to cry. By this time I was ready to just buy a triple stroller and walk everywhere. I had had it with cars, dealerships, and scheister car salesman (not all of them are scheisters, I'm just sayin', I had had my fill of them)!

I gave up the search for all of a day, and then I was off and running again. Like I said, it's really difficult to dislodge an idea from my skull once it's already in there. So, on my way to another dealership two days ago, I saw a newly opened dealership, whose company has a good reputation, and for good reason. In fact, my first car was made by them, and it's still going strong. I swung in their parking lot, told them the abbreviated version of my sob story (this is the unabridged version), and I only had to look at one vehicle to know that this was the one. We bought it that day.

I love it, love it, love it! I really wanted to hate it, because I don't want to admit to myself or anyone else that I'm old enough to drive a minivan, but...THIS THING ROCKS!!! It's a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT. 50K miles, power seats, am/fm/cassette/cd, triple climate control, dual power sliding doors, stow and go seating, 3 (count 'em...3) LATCH spots, cruise control, power steering, adjustable pedals (great for us short pregnant ladies with the watermelon gut who couldn't reach the pedals without mashing their bellies against the steering wheel, otherwise), digital compass, digital external thermometer, 2 auxillary power outlets, tons of storage...have I mentioned this thing is awesome?! Oh, and we got it for less than 16K!

God has a way of working things out, and I am really grateful for His timing. Now, if I could just get myself to get out of His way, so He could work these things out, I wouldn't have been so ridiculously stressed these last couple of weeks. I'm humbled by how He continues to bless me in spite of how I demonstrate a lack of Faith. Thank you, Jesus.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28