Minivan Mama

It's official...we are minivan owners!  Ryan still isn't so sure about this, but I think he's beginning to come to grips with the fact that this was the best decision for our expanding family.  I got to that point a long time ago, so I'm happy we finally have our van.

Boy, it was an emotional week of trying to get this van.  A quick recap: we found one via private party and looked at it on Monday.  He was asking way to much for the base model, so we continued our search.  We looked at another one on Tuesday evening and we both loved (as much as Ryan could love a minivan) it.  It was a 2008 and top of the line model in really good condition.  We called the guy back on Wednesday morning and he wouldn't accept our offer because he owed more money than we were offering.  I was bummed, but understood.  I found a great deal from a dealer on Wednesday and spoke with a sales rep and he said he had people coming to look at it that night.  I called back Thursday morning and the van sold Wednesday night.  I was again really bummed.  Thursday night we looked at yet another van.  This one was promising - within our price range and in fairly good condition.  The only problem is that the AC didn't work.  The salesman said he would have it looked at on Friday and let us know.  We even negotiated a price with him.  Very surprising for a salesperson, but we had to call him.  He gave Ryan the runaround, so I spent a good portion of Friday night looking for more options.

Oh boy, Friday night was fun.  I ended up finding a really good deal about 1 hour 45 minutes away.  I called the dealer and, of course, it sold 5 hours earlier.  I continued my search and found 9 vans for Ryan and I to vet.  We crossed off a decent number and picked 1 that we thought was a "too good to be true" deal in Elgin.  It was a 2008 with only 30K miles on it.  It was a little steep on our price range, but given the low miles, we were going to take a look at it Saturday.  I spoke with the dealer and he said they would run it through inspection first thing in the morning and we could come around noon.  Perfect!

Saturday morning around 9a, I received a call from one of the dealers I contacted in Joliet (about 1 hour away).  They had an 2006 with 72K miles on it and it was on the lot for viewing despite the fact it hadn't gone through inspection yet (they just received it two days earlier on a trade-in).  I asked how much and it was surprisingly very much in our price range.  So, Ryan and I decided to call the Elgin dealer and postpone our visit until the later in the afternoon.  We wanted to see this one in Joliet first since it seemed to be a better fit financially.  Turns out, we really liked it and bought it!  We both love the color (officially, Slate Green Metallic Ocean Mist Metallic, but it looks more like a very light grey/blue color) and both the exterior and interior are in good condition considering it's 7 years old.  We negotiated with the dealer and were able to walk out the door paying $200 more than our goal.  Not too shabby for dealing with a car dealership.

Minivan Mama (as Ryan now calls me)