So, we've been planning for this van for quite some time. Mainly financial planning. We could have waited until the summer to get it and just do a smaller loan (or pay for it with cash), but we decided that we'd really like the convenience of the van for our trip to visit my family next month. With my surgery coming up I felt like I wanted to get this taken care of. I test drove a couple of vans at a local dealership, but it seemed like the smartest thing to get our van through Hertz since we bought our previous car with them and had a warranty with it. The warranty is only 18 months old and so it would translate into $1800 towards our next car if we traded it in there. Make sense? It didn't make much sense to throw away that $1800! Besides, Hertz sells their rental cars that they take VERY good care of. We have been extremely happy with our last car, so we are hoping for a repeat performance. If anyone wants to buy through them, tell them I sent you!
Hertz didn't have the van I wanted on their lot, but they did have one that they could ship over to us. We negotiated price and all that. We ended up saving about $300 getting the van with them and not with the other dealer, and we ended up with a better van (3.8 liter engine instead of 3.3, power doors, audio controls on the steering wheel, darker interior, more overhead storage space, built-in garage door opener, things like that). It's harder to negotiate price when they already know about the $1800 and everything. We definitely think we could have gotten a better price from them, but we're still learning the finer points of haggling. However, we are still happy with what we paid, it fits into our financial plan and what we'd intended to spend.
So, we bought the car before we drove it. They did tell us that if it didn't meet our expectations that we wouldn't be stuck with it. We could still back out. So I drove down with the girls (the Hertz place is about an hour or so away) to check it out and make sure it was right. And I'm excited to report that it is! We even got sent off with a full tank of gas.
It's a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT (dark blue) with just under 30,000 miles. The body kind of looks like an SUV instead of a jellybean, so I like that (you can compare the two styles in the 2nd pic of this post- the older model is in the background). In the picture above you see a row of drop down storage units on the roof. The captains chairs that the car seats are on actually drop down and stow in the floor, so does the back bench. So if we ever need to move something big, it's really easy to get a large area of cargo space. It has a couple of normal power outlets and it has a place where I can plug my mp3 player in and hear it through the car speakers. That's really convenient when my audiobook is on my mp3 player and we have a roadtrip. The driver's seat is power adjustable, so are the driving pedals. It tells you how many miles per gallon you are getting while you drive. It has a 3-way temperature control (driver, passenger and back). The kids' windows actually roll down. One feature that I'm impressed with is the drop down child-view mirror. I can see my kids without needing to stick an extra mirror on my windshield.
Baby Dragon loves the power doors, she likes to be able to close them herself. She is a little mystified when I remote open them. She asked how it opened and I explained that I told them to open. So the next time she went to close the door she tried to tell it to close via voice command! Hahaha!
My one complaint about buying from Hertz is that it takes FOREVER! Maybe this is normal with dealerships too. We were there for 4 hours on Saturday, we only test drove one van, looked at 3 or 4 on their lot and spent most of the remaining time WAITING while they did whatever they do. Same thing happened last time. When I went to pickup the van it took about an hour. The girls had a great time entertaining themselves by laying on the floor and playing with the motorcycle in the show room. Baby Dragon wanted to pose by it, she was cracking me up, being a little model.
The downside to owning a van? We can't fit it in the garage! Our garage is too short!
5 comments:
Nice! It looks brand new from the pictures! Sorry that it can't fit in the garage you probably weren't expecting that... congrats on getting it so soon I know you have been wanting it!
We actually knew it wouldn't fit in the garage, but it was worth it to us anyway. We definitely could have got a lower price or walked out on them to look else where, but we felt the deal was good and decided to take it.
Driving to Utah in the van will be a much more enjoyable experience that in the Galant. I am happy with our purchase and the van and hope (like in all big purchases) there isn't some underlying problem we didn't know about.
We are officially a minivan family
ha good thing it came with the garage door opener!! ps your girls are adorable!
Ahhh-- I'm so jealous!! We've been looking at vans a lot lately too. We need it not only for our growing family...but also to transport guests back and forth and stuff. I wish I could get a 2008-- that's AWESOME. I'm probably going to be getting a Japanesevehicle.com van that has the left hand steering and all that fun stuff :) But I don't think it will be as snazy as yours!
I'm also glad to hear you are recovering well from your surgery!! Love ya girl!
You just bought my van! OK, not really my van, but ever since I found out I was pregnant, we have been looking for a 2008 SXT (I agree with the desire for that bodystyle). We have both our cars posted for sale and I check the vans nearby almost daily for one that I hope to get. I love the color you got! I would pick that color if I had the choice. You'll have to let me know how you like it a few months down the road. I am getting anxious to get one. I think that will take a bit of the stress off!
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