We have both said that we will never own a minivan and yet here we are posting that we bought a minivan. lol It all started last year when we found out that we were going to have baby #3 in 2010. Gretchen really wanted to get a bigger vehicle than the truck (like an SUV) b/c she knew that we would all be cramped in the truck. The five of us could all fit in the truck but there wouldn't be a whole lot of room. Corey didn't want to get another vehicle b/c both of our vehicles are paid for and he didn't want another payment.... understandable! So, Gretchen became content with the truck and figured we could just get a cover for the back (to keep a stroller back there) and we'd make it work b/c she didn't want a car payment either. The only way to have no payment would be to sell the truck and that was NOT going to happen. lol
Corey started talking about a month ago about possibly buying another vehicle. Gretchen was surprised b/c she was to the point where they would just make it work with the truck. We started looking at SUV's. We didn't want anything older than a 2005. We really wanted a Tahoe. Both of us like the newer body styles better than the older body styles. BUT.... you couldn't get one under $20,000. Well, we didn't want to spend that much on a vehicle. Corey wanted something a little bigger than the Tahoe, like a Suburban or Expedition but again.... you couldn't get a used one under $20,000. Gretchen started thinking maybe we need to be open to looking at minivans but never said anything to Corey b/c he felt the same way she did about them.
The next day (after Gretchen thought about looking at minivans), Corey sent her a text asking if she ever thought about looking at minivans. How ironic was that?? One of his co-workers had talked him into looking at them and said that now his wife wishes they would have gotten a minivan over a Tahoe. The more we looked into minivans (and there ratings) and there prices, we realized they were more in our price range. There was only one van that we liked the body style of and that was the Honda Odyssey. Plus, we've heard that they'll run for like 300,000 miles. So, after a lot of research and looking, we decided to go test drive one. A 2006 Honda Odyssey.
We really liked it and after very little negotiating (b/c they posted a wrong price on the Internet and Gretchen printed it out, they honored it), we bought it. It's very nice. Some features that it has that we LOVE is a back-up camera, a built in navigation system, heated seats, a built in DVD player, a 6 disc CD player, a power sunroof, bluetooth for our cell phones, built-in window shades for the windows, a lazy susan underneath the floor for storage and the 3rd row of seats folds down for extra storage. Oh... and we love the leather interior.... makes for easy clean-up. Of course we love the power everything in it AND the steering wheel has the controls for a lot of things.
So.... we're officially a minivan family. We can't believe it but it really has been a good decision for us!
