My new ride

I mentioned our new van in my last post. This was not a planned purchase. This was in fact a very poor time to be making such a purchase as we just bought a brand new van a little over a year ago that we had planned to keep for years to come and we were upside down on the loan. I loved that van! I went from a van that made me angry every single day to one that worked perfectly and was clean and new and had so many features. When we planned to have one more baby we were fine. My van would have seated the seven of us and I already knew who would sit where. My van did not seat eight.

So we were on the hunt for a new van. This hunt took us to every dealership in our town and half of them in the nearest metro area. We had a salesman in town actively looking for what we needed (although we weren't entirely sure yet what it was we needed) and several others with our info to call if something came in. But nobody had any vans that would seat eight. They had SUVs, which would work for many families but not ours because my garage is the slimmest garage known to man and our kids would destroy doors like that in five minutes or less. They also had no knowledge of minivans so we had to educate all of them.

For reference, there are three models of minivan that seat eight. The Honda Oddessy, Toyota Sienna, and Kia Sedona. We looked at every model and feature and knowing that we really wanted automatic sliding doors for getting twin babies in and out, we were able to narrow it down to certain versions of each van. Then we were able to sit in a few. We quickly learned that we could only afford used vehicles and looking at a Honda or Toyota was going to put us in something several years old. After many days and nights of both of us with a million computer tabs open, one trip to test drive a van that got sold while we were waiting, and much internal settling for something I was going hate, we discovered that Carmax offered several 2016 used Sedonas close to our price range and were also able to give us thousands more in trade in value than anywhere else we had checked. Both of us had awesome experiences at two different Carmax locations and would totally recommend them to anyone even though we ultimately bought our new Sedona from another dealer.

Carmax was able to transfer a van in the color we wanted to our local dealer for $550. But that van was sitting in Denver and we realized that Mike could drive there and back for less money and we both love Denver so having an excuse to visit didn't make him sad. They make Coors there. They only sell low point beer in our state. Enough said. And it just so happened that life worked out that he had a VERY rare three days off right when we found this vehicle. Looking back I think it was supposed to work out exactly that way. We were supposed to get the van thing settled before learning about the TTTS so it was one less thing to fit in and worry about.

So he was off to Denver. And it just so happened that he found another very similar Sedona at a dealership 90 minutes away to look at as well. This last minute addition to the tour ended up being just the right stop and he was able to bring home our new used van the same day my parents arrived for roof repairs/Thanksgiving/birthday. And of course he picked up a nail on the drive home as well so we had to get a tire fixed first thing the next day.

It isn't a fast and hot love with this new van like it was with my last one. I like it but obviously am comparing it to stiffer competition so it suffers there. I'm hoping it will be a slow building and long lasting love. This is the van that will bring our boys home so of course I will love it.