Our New Ride

February 28^th marked five years since Primero moved in with me. This year we marked the day by getting a new van. We had finally gotten the income tax return money and went to the dealership to see if we could qualify for a loan on a newer van. Our old van was in very sad shape. Rust spots were eating through all four doors. There were scrapes and dents, some big and noticeable, all along the body. The front headlight on the driver’s side never fit back in the socket correctly after our accident, so it hung lopsidedly and on many occasions Good Samaritans would advise me I was losing my headlight. The window on the front passenger’s side would work sometimes and other times not. The back passenger’s side sliding door was broken and could not be used at all. The sliding door behind the driver could only be opened by the button inside, since the lock broke and sometimes, when it was really, really hot, the door would not open at all. The spare tire was in the back instead of under the van where it belonged because the winch was broken and we couldn’t put the tire back. The check engine light was always on. The oil light would flicker off and on and sometimes it meant the van needed oil and sometimes it didn’t. The van used about 2 quarts of oil every 6 weeks. The back tire on the passenger side was losing air and required a refill every two days. The heat did not really work up front, the defrost did not work in the front and the AC hadn’t worked in years. Plus, the van roared so loudly because the exhaust was disconnected or had a hole or something, so it made normal conversation nearly impossible and listening to the radio was similarly hard to do. So, it was more than time for our van to be put to rest. We had used it up as much as we could.

 

Our new van is not fancy, but it feels like we hit the jackpot compared to our old van. The new van is 10 years newer, for one, and with 150,000 miles less wear and tear. It does not have the fancy electric gadgets, so all the doors open manually unlike the old van, but that means less electronic things to go on the fritz. The new van is clean and drives like a dream. The night and day difference is nearly palpable; just being able to hear my children talk to me from the back seat again brings tears to my eyes! We don’t have a fancy back up screen or any other special features newer vehicles have, but that is what made our van affordable for us. The lack of bells and whistles but low mileage is really an agreeable exchange for us. We don’t take long trips, so we really need a van that can reliably get us from point A to point B and we have that in our new van. I feel like we are much safer too because we don’t have to worry about the van dying and leaving us sit alongside the road somewhere. The only downside is having a car loan again. I am going to try being an Uber driver to help offset the cost of the van. We’ll see how it goes. For right now we are all just so happy and much, much more comfortable in our new ride.