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Today we traded in our old 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan and bought
a 2008 Honda Odyssey LX minivan. The pictures below were taken
in front of AutoFair Honda in Manchester, NH. We bought the
Caravan from AutoFair back in 2002. I looked for pictures of
that event, but apparently I didn't take any. In 2002 the need for a replacement vehicle became urgent when our old Caprice Classic Station Wagon that we had purchased in 1988 finally failed in an expensive way. We had that car for 14 years and it had served us well. I remember calculating the miles per gallon the wagon was getting at the end and it was only 9 miles per gallon on premium! So, one morning in February 2002 I got on the internet and went to AutoFair's website. They listed two vans in their inventory. One was a full sizeed van and the other was a minivan. I called them up and requested a test drive for both of them. While driving the full sized van I knew it was too big for Joyce to feel comfortable driving. Next I drove the minivan and knew that Joyce would like that. I bought it. I had already been pre-approved for a car loan with our credit union so it was just a matter of jumping through all the hoops to get it all done. So, in a two day period I junked one car and bought a minivan. We paid the loan off in four years. Fast forward to today, ten years later. We were told last year at inspection time that the minivan wouldn't pass this year without some serious rust repair. The exhaust system is also in need of attention. Joyce and I decided that it didn't make sense to put the kind of money into it that it would take. The Caravan has almost 190,000 miles on it. So we knew we would need to replace it this year. I've been watching several different dealers' websites looking for minivans and getting a feel for prices. The Odyssey that I bought today had actually been sold two weeks ago, but the buyers' financing fell through and they had to return it. I had seen it on their website, but just wasn't ready to make the plunge. Then that minivan disappeared from their website and I felt like I had missed an opportunity. I kept watching for an Odyssey or Toyota Sienna in the price range I was willing to pay, but nothing really showed up. Yesterday morning I checked and overnight this Odyssey had come back on AutoFair's website. I sent a test drive request, but had to go to work before they could respond. When they did I set up for a test drive this morning. I drove our Caravan up and even took the title with me on the off chance that the deal would be done today if I liked the car. Well, that's pretty much how it happened. I got there by 9:00 AM and took the Odyssey for a test drive around Manchester. I pulled into a large parking lot and gave it an inspection checking everything out. I looked underneath for rust. I did tight turns forward and reverse listening for clunks or any other odd noises. Nothing. It seemed like exactly the car I wanted. It does have 78,331 miles on it, but that is one reason the price is lower. The car started out as a rental car in Michigan for its first 18 months and 50,000 miles. It was then sold at an auction to AutoFair in Dec 2009. They sold it to a private individual who had it until Dec 2011 when it was traded in on a different car. So now we own it. We paid cash for it. We have been saving up every month for five years in order to have enough to replace the Caravan when it died. We have been greatly blessed to have things work out as they have. The pictures below are of when I was moving everything from the Caravan into the Odyssey. It is sad to see the Caravan go, but it is also nice to have a car that is 9 years newer. Hopefully Honda quality will pay off and we can get into the 200K mile range before it goes. |
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