The quest to buy a van

So we have been spending the last couple of months thinking and planning our changes with our vehicles. Thanks to my old roomie Stacey's idea I decided to do a post of our entire experience because I think we learned a lot!

To start, 5 years ago we bought the good old Subaru. We did everything wrong with how we went about purchasing that, we were naive and got suckered into the car and the dealer and everything about it. As much as we loved the Subaru, it went against all the great reputations of Subarus and was such a money pit the whole time we had it. It was just always having mechanical issues of one kind or another.

Then we started researching the possibility of a van. We have been listening/reading some of the advice Dave Ramsey gives. We watched this video and decided to start trying that concept. We used some of our tax refund money to finish paying off our Subaru and then we opened a separate account and set up an automatic transaction so we are for sure paying into our car account each month while we don't have a car payment. We aren't tempted to use that money somewhere else since it is automatically going over. Steve made this little chart in our search to know what would be best to do, between buying a van or keeping the Subaru and just saving up for longer. It seems kind of intense (i give him all the credit of coming up with it) but it was very helpful to us in deciding how and what to do. So to those of you in the process of car shopping, don't feel like you have to make Steve's detailed chart but it is such a good idea to make a 10 year plan like he did to see what would bring the highest monetary returns!

Then our Subaru had MORE problems. At this point it was just getting so frustrating, so we decided to list it and sell it before it wouldn't sell at all. It was bittersweet to sell it. We have a lot of memories with that car. We loved taking it outdoors and camping. It is a fun car. But it had so many problems it was such a relief to have it in someone else's care. Kind of sad because we sold it way under what it was technically worth but it was the only way it would sell. People would love it on test drives, then they would take it to a mechanic and never talk to us again. Haha

Well it sold and then we were on the final quest to purchasing our van. We have always been a 2-car family so we just had to patiently make it work with just one car for about 2-3 weeks. I think this next part of the whole process was the hardest. Searching and waiting for the perfect vehicle with the perfect price. Which of course has to be a low price to fit into our low budget. The hard decision between taking out a small loan or paying cash for a lower quality vehicle. We stewed over that decision for a long time. We started researching consumer reports, prices, and Edmunds reviews of different vehicles. Searching and researching was so time consuming. I didn't want to search out of our local area because I didn't want to feel obligated to buy something we didn't really want just because we drove four hours to see it. But there are currently so few vans being sold in Southern UT! Seriously, it was such a trial on my patience. You can only spend so much time looking for new deals on Craigslist & KSL. KSL has mostly a market in Northern UT so even though we watched it a lot there are so few posts from sellers in Southern UT it was discouraging. Last week we set aside some time to test drive some vans while my parents watched our kids. We drove probably 5 different vehicles and didn't even like any of them enough to even remotely consider them. The ones at the dealerships were just so overpriced for the quality of the vehicle. It was kind of a turn off to everything. We kept praying and hoping for the right van to just show up & that we would just know it was the right one when we saw it. Again, patience. (Yes, I always need to work on this quality).

Then it happened! On Tuesday morning I was searching online for vans again. It was totally meant to be, I just know it. Heavenly Father was ready to answer my prayers. I was on KSL and I had the intention of researching prices of Toyota Siennas. I was kind of in a daze and I didn't realize I had searched for Honday Odysseys until the search results were posted. I thought I had searched Siennas until I saw the pictures of the Odysseys. I thought "oh well it is up, I might as well look through them." Honda Odysseys seem to be the minivans that everyone loves. So although we wanted one deep down inside, we had low hopes of being able to find a good one in our price range. So when I saw the 04 Odyssey posted for sale just in Hurricane, I got so excited! I called them up and my parents test drove it for us that night. (We couldn't make it down that day). My parents liked it and I knew we would too. At the same time my parents were driving the Honda Odyssey, Steve & I were driving a Dodge Caravan that was also a good price. It was not as nice but it was in our cash price range and we liked it too. So we were back to our original decision: take out a small loan for something nice or pay cash for something good but not as nice and stay out of debt? Well you can see our decision...we ended up opting for the Odyssey. It was too good of a deal to pass up. They had it priced really low compared all the other Odysseys we saw online, and priced to sell quick. So we knew we needed to act quick. We pulled some strings and set up a time yesterday to meet with them and buy it. I offered $500 less than they had it listed for just to see if he would go lower, and he took my offer! (That is something I learned from a short term Sunday school finance class we had in our ward...always try to barter.) I would've probably paid full price for it if he would've been firm, it was that good of a deal to me. But I was grateful for the discount! It made it even that much more affordable. I made sure to take it to a family friend mechanic because I promised myself after buying our Subaru without taking it to a mechanic that I will never buy a car again with out checking it out first. He said nothing bad about it hardly and I was sold on it! It was a little crazy running around trying to seal the deal before banks & credit unions closed. (All during the craziness I left my kids with my brother Dalyon and of course Heber happened to be puking all night from food I fed him at lunch. Like I said, a crazy day. Thanks to Dalyon and my mom in putting up with Heber's pukes!) But we did it! And we had our new van last night! The funniest thing of it all is that Steve never even saw it until I drove it home. He had class at 6 so he dropped me off to do the business and buy a van that he didn't even get to check out till he was the owner! :) I was so excited all day, I was like a kid on Christmas. I knew it would work out how it was supposed to, and it ended up being better than I had imagined!! It was such an answer to our prayers and we are so grateful it ended up so great!

T.J. is very excited about his new silver van! (in general, not really in this picture. He was talking so it looks funny!)