The Search for a Mini-Van

For those who know me, you know I've been wanting a mini-van for quite a while, much to my husband's dismay. When we were dating, we both agreed that mini-vans were for "soccer moms" and we didn't ever want one. We'd rather have an SUV or some other type of "family vehicle".

Then we had kids...

Even though we only have 2 kids, it's amazing how much stuff they have! Whenever we go on trips, the backseat of my Taurus (our big "family car") is full of kid stuff! There's the 2 car seats, with the kids in them of course, a baby bag sitting on the seat between them, a blanket or 2, toys to entertain them. Then the floor at their feet is stuffed full of snacks, DVD's, books, and random other things needed at an arm's reach. It's crazy. The space issued coupled with the fact that I have 2 herniated discs in my back and have a hard time bending down to get the kids in and out of the car...it was past time for something different. So finally Joel agreed that a mini-van would be the best for our family.

So the search was on.

Joel did a massive amount of research on what type of mini-van was the best deal, what had the highest ratings, what features were the best. The man had an Excel spreadsheet rating the different vans. It was cute. We finally narrowed the search to a Toyota Sienna, Honda Odyssey, and a Mazda MPV. What? A Mazda? I didn't even realize they made mini-vans. Well, they don't anymore. The last year they made one was 2006 but the '05 and '06 models were actually ranked one of the highest for dependability. So we figured out our budget and started the search. Luckily, we have neighbors who own a Sienna and Odyssey so they let us test drive theirs for comparison. Then we found 1 dealer in the Des Moines area who had an MPV for sale. It had super high miles so we knew we wouldn't be buying it but at least we could make sure we liked the thing. It was awesome. The Mazdas have some serious get-up-and-go! It's the "Zoom-Zoom" feature. Very nice.

After weeks of searching the internet, we found 2 MPVs in Minnesota that seemed like good deals. So we dropped the kids off at my mom's for a full day and we drove on up to Minneapolis. On the way up, we found out that one of the vans had been sold. (this was after a week of being strung along by the owner...little annoyed about that). But at least there was another one in St. Cloud to look at.

We got to St. Cloud bright and early after spending the night with my sister in Minneapolis. We knew right away that we wouldn't be buying the van. Why? It had rust on it. Seriously? I couldn't believe it. We had looked at all the pictures of it, talked to the salesman several times and NEVER did he mention that there was rust on the thing! Plus it was priced according to Kelley Blue Book's excellent rating. Uhhh...I don't think cars that have rust are considered excellent. Then as we were test driving it, we noticed a couple things. First of all, the rubber on the brake and gas pedals were gone. Weird. And it was missing the cigarette lighter so there was just a hole in the dash. Granted, I don't need a cigarette lighter but who wants a random hole in their dashboard for no apparent reason? Still, it wasn't a wasted trip. Since that was an actual Mazda dealer, the salesman was able to show us some features on the van that we didn't know about. I think the MPV is the van for us but now we just have to find one.

The search continues...