What do you do when you are trying to organize your world? (As I was trying to do this weekend) You start checking things off of your to do list and making a plan on how to attack the rest of your list that is bigger than just a checkmark!
So that is what we did - here's the backstory of our 2 "New" cars!
Our driveway a few months ago with our 2 minivans:
(notice the oil leaks and ignore Aunt Chrissy and Carleigh)
2 years ago at Disney World - coming out of Test Track - they had the Chevy Traverse in the showroom there. We fell in love with it and loved the 3 row seats and the crossover status. I came home and researched the car and realized - what fun it would be, but totally unnecessary. We had a perfectly fine 2005 Dodge minivan that had no problems. My practical side won out - no Chevy Traverse for us.
1 year ago - Don had to go to Pennsylvania by himself for a funeral. "There is no way our second car - Don's 2000 Gold ManVan was going to make it to PA and back without some kind of problem." We took it to the shop to get a trip check and make sure it was road trip worthy - fully expecting many issues and lots of $$$. In the back of my mind.....now I get my new car - we trade in Don's Man Van for a Chevy Traverse! Lo and behold...there were no problems with the Gold Grand Caravan and off Don went to PA.
I continued to think about a 3-row crossover and started researching the others that were out there....Subaru Tribeca, Toyota Highlander, Mazda CX9....this year at the beach in July we decided that we would do it soon! And...trade in my 2005 minivan to get a better trade-in value and then get a 3 row crossover. Lots of vacations later and lots of researching....and
Suddenly the gods told us it was time.....
Blue Van: automatic door stopped working, power locks stopped working, headlights on/off had a mind of its own, unidentified oil leak identified by my brother-in-law...the list was starting to get longer
Gold Van: horn stopped working, air bag light wouldn't go off, driver's side window would go down, but not up, clicking sound in transmission intermittently.....
All of the above problems showed themselves within 3 months of each other!
We started school, we got our VERY SMALL pay raise, I redid the budget and decided that this was the weekend that I was checking things off of my to do list and these two cars would be on my list permanently if we didn't do something about them so...
Laura before:
Dodge Caravan - 2005- blue
Laura after:
Toyota Highlander - 2011 - sandy lighter blue
The Highlander was the easy one - it had been 2 years in the making and we had to get rid of the blue van quick before anything else started failing (or else fix the things that were failing). After 4 hours of haggling/test driving/paperwork we drove out with the new car. Our new family road trip car - to be christened over Columbus Day weekend as we head to Toledo, Ohio for a family wedding.
Our second purchase was a bit more of a surprise - Don casually mentioned that whenever we decide to get rid of the gold van - he wanted a Jeep Wrangler. Well, I casually went to the Carmax website and searched "for fun." I slid the price requested slider very far down and searched - and found the ONLY Jeep Wrangler that they had. It was perfect for what Don wanted, low mileage, low price and on site at the Dulles Carmax. A perfect around town car and fun family day trip car. Did we go and do it? Did we wait and be practical and plan and research some more? I left it up to Don....he said go and we did!
Here are the results:
Don before:
Dodge Grand Caravan - 2000 - Gold
Don after:
Jeep Wrangler - 2004 - Red
Our new driveway:
Are we having a mid-life crisis? Not really, but maybe these purchases will help prevent one! :)
Did we go crazy and make some crazy decisions? Not really - basically 2 years in the making.....sort of! :)
Are we the Rahns and we don't just think about doing things, but do it? Absolutely!!!
Remember.....Seldom A Dull Moment!
School is off to a great start and everyone is happy - if all maintains, then our next big event will be our first road trip in the new car to Ohio over Columbus Day weekend!
Stay Tuned.....
