by Holly Schwendiman
It
was about this time two years ago when we purchased our last car. The
holiday season was approaching and we had a year of long distance
travels coming up. We knew we needed something that worked better for
our family. My back couldn’t continue taking the constant reaching and
stretching to restart the movie on the laptop every time it got bumped,
and my nerves sure couldn’t take many more long road trips with our two
kids getting more verbal and active with each other. As you can see
from these pictures, the decision made everyone happy travelers!
Ironically,
I vowed, from the time they came into existence, that I would never own
a minivan. My cousin and I used to call them pig wagons as that’s what
they looked like to us - a pig. Not the best starting point for
referencing a make/model of car. I watched my older sister go through a
few of these and it just confirmed how ugly they were to me and how
much I didn’t want one. Well, a minivan is just what we bought two
years ago. *sigh*
I blame divine intervention. My husband’s second Camry was crunched in
a rear end collision, sandwiched between two cars. Although the frame
was bent, and we were told initially it was totaled, the insurance
company decided to fix it. For the month it was being worked on, they
put us in…..you guessed it, a minivan. My daughter was 7 at the time
and was absolutely delighted saying over and over how we were finally
getting a “cool” car. Only at this tender age could a minivan be called
such.
The
darn thing was so convenient and I hated that I was reveling in that
convenience. Sliding doors - - no more door dings from my kids swinging
open doors, easy loading of car seats and kids, captain chairs keeping
the two kiddos just enough arm’s length apart to aid combative backseat
fighting. It was a thing of beauty - and all that cargo room. Dang. We
could fit in a few friends, and when parents came to visit we could all
travel in one car. As a family who had made the thousand-mile trek to
visit family many a time in our Camry, this new found freedom and space
were amazing and we were sold. We both lamented knowing that the darn
thing made sense.
Car
buying has been most interesting during my marriage. I never owned my
own car before I got married. My husband already had a car when we got
married and it was nice. I felt spoiled. His dad sent us to Arizona
with an old 1970 Monte Carlo as a second car after we were married. It
was ugly as heck, but it worked for a while. Sadly, it had been in
storage for most of its life and it didn’t take to the Arizona heat
well at all. So within a few months and what felt like a few hundred
flat tire changes, we decided it was time to buy a second car on our
own.
We
found a used one we liked and were actually at the table ready to work
up the papers when the salesman pulled a fast one trying to increase
the price by $1,000.00. He was so confident he could get away with it
that it made us mad and we walked…not just out his door, but across the
street to another dealer and promptly bought a car we liked the look of
that was the price we had planned on spending. That proved a learning
experience all its own. Never by a car when emotional; it’s a bad idea
and sure way to end up with buyer’s remorse.
The car’s life had
a happy ending but only because of my dad. You see, I grew up in a home
where only one or two cars in my parent’s lifetime were new, but they
still have almost every one they’ve ever purchased. Okay, that might be
a slight exaggeration, but my dad does still have the beat up ‘59 Chevy
pickup he had when I was a toddler and many times his property could
have been a used car lot. My dad is a recycler. He can’t bear to see
anything become outdated or unused.
So when they came to visit us, you can imagine his
dismay at seeing our car sit dormant, collecting cobwebs in our
apartment parking lot as neither my husband nor myself were mechanics
or salesman and as starving students, we certainly didn’t have money to
pay to have the big items replaced that it needed. So he fixed it up
and drove it home where he got several thousand more miles out of it,
over and beyond the 140,000 it had when we bought it (I know DUMB
purchase!) and was still very sad that he couldn’t get more out of it
than he did. He loves old cars and holds dear to his heart his first
car, the beloved, red, Pontiac.
He can tell you the make, model and year of most anything from the 50s
and 60s and anything that’s not a standard (stick) transmission is
rarely worth your time. He’s replaced entire engines just to keep old
buckets alive. He still rolls his eyes at me when the topic of taking
your car in for an oil change comes up. It’s like fingernails down a
chalkboard to him, but I remind him that he’s a thousand miles away.
Contrast this to my husband’s experience where his family bought new
cars, used the warranties and then bought new ones before a lot of
service was required. And with my husband inheriting his dad’s mechanic
abilities, this is more the path we’ve experienced in our marriage,
especially after the first big blunder of the Buick. In our 14+ years
together, we’ve owned 10 cars - 4 used and 6 new. We’d frequently go
from two cars to one whenever possible and managed nearly 5 years
during this time with only one car.
Ironically, we traded in our first Camry and Cirrus for a lease on a
Concord and three years later traded that back for another Camry and
Cirrus. LOL Although we were always happy with our new Camry’s, our
prized decision was my 2000 Cirrus which had only 13,000 miles on it
and which we got an amazing price. In fact we still own it – the
longest of any car. This was a much needed confidence boost after the
first used car buying blunder, and it fueled us into hoping to find as
good a deal this time around. It was a good thought. *wink*
Naturally, they showed us the biggest, baddest, bestest minivan on the
lot (incidentally, the ONLY one that was already loaded with the DVD
player, which was at the top of our list for travel necessities, not to
mention more gadgets and gizmos than I’d seen in one vehicle before.)
Dual side temperature control (I heard the hallelujah choir sing),
seats that fold down to make a flat cargo floor, sun roof, side windows
that rolled down, radar distance notification and a million more
features. When they brought down the monthly to the range we requested
it was a done deal. Our car had 3 miles on it when we started the test
drive, and had there been any doubt before that moment driving that
baby sealed the deal. It felt just like driving our Camry. We went
saying we didn’t want to buy new, that we’d save money by taking a
basic model and hopefully a good used one at that. We drove out in a
brand new, completed loaded (including Lo Jack) luxury car. And I have
to admit that although I still don’t love the look of the minivan, I
certainly have a crush on the experience it has been owning and driving
mine. It’s the nicest car I’ve ever owned and I’ve never had a moment
of buyer’s remorse.
Of course, I’m still dreaming of the Escalade and Mercedes, but as to
all things, times and seasons. This is the minivan season, the time it
makes the most sense, so I may as well enjoy it knowing it too will
pass and probably much faster than I’m ready for. I’m sure in a few
more years I’ll be looking back with great fondness on the minivan days
when my kids were young and I’ll be remembering all the good times we
had on those long road trips together because we were all comfortable
and happy! Was it worth it? Every penny.
