Van Hunt

 We have a van again! Even though we lasted 13 whole years as a one-car family, the 18 days that we waited between the deer debacle and subsequent van replacement felt lengthy. Once our Kia van was officially declared a total loss, Jeff and I had to sign several notarized documents releasing the vehicle to the insurance company. Then we had to wait for the paperwork to be processed and then (after more paperwork) wait for the insurance company to deposit the settlement into our bank account. Meanwhile, the days of Jeff's summer break were slipping away. Once the insurance settlement appeared in our account, we had three days to find a replacement van before Jeff's first day of teacher in-service. 

Buying a vehicle is a big deal! Three days seemed like a very short amount of time to make the decision, but we wanted to do it in one day. Who wants to spend the last three days of summer sweating it out at car dealerships? So we did some research and found a van within our insurance settlement price range. It was a Kia Sedona, just like our former van, but one year younger and 20,000 miles older. And it was burgundy instead of navy blue. It seemed like the perfect replacement. The car market is ridiculously inflated right now, (we bought our last van for $19k and five years later, the insurance settlement was almost $17k--Kelley Blue Book value and insane value retention, but still much lower than than current market value). Vans are especially hard to find right now, so we felt super lucky to find this used minivan.

Tuesday, August 23rd was our designated dealership day. We left Jay in charge at home and drove Jeff's fully charged electric car the 40 miles to the Kia dealership in Yakima. On the way, I said "unless there is something horribly wrong with this van, we are going to buy it." I even had a name all picked out for the burgundy van: Buffy, an abbreviation of the classic French stew Boeuf Bourguignon (beef burgundy) and also after the famous TV vampire slayer of the 1990s. Even though I think that red is too much color for a minivan, I was starting to feel attached to Buffy already! 

After we arrived at the dealership and plugged our short range electric car into the charging station there, the car salesman drove us to the "detailing lot" and at last we saw the burgundy 2017 Kia Sedona. There it was, looking comfortably familiar (if a little redder) than our beloved damaged blue van. We opened up the trunk and immediately noticed a bunch of deep scrapes and gouges all along the walls, like a large metal object that was bigger than the space had been crammed into the back of the van. The rear seatbelts were dangling limply, slightly tattered, and covered in gray smudges. 

Ok, we told ourselves, it's a used car. It's not going to be perfect.

Jeff did the test drive while I rode shotgun. The van had a definite dog smell to it, and the minute we turned on the air conditioning to blast away some of the 95 degree heat, we gagged. It was like four giant dogs were exhaling in our faces, one from each vent. It was the foulest dog breath smell that I've ever smelled. But it was entirely too hot outside to drive without the air conditioning, and we thought maybe the smell would clear up after a while.

It didn't.

"Ughhh, somehow I can taste the dog!" Jeff shuddered.

"Maybe it'll help if we point the air vents down?" I suggested.

It didn't.

The test drive was a unique kind of torture. The van wasn't interesting or new to us, since it looked and felt the same as our former van. It was hot. And that wet dog breath scent intensified the longer we drove. But we had to get onto the highway to test the acceleration, so through the laborious stoplights of downtown Yakima we drove. The only thing we could think about while we drove was GET ME OUT OF THIS THING. 

Finally, the test drive was over and we scrambled out of the disgusting dog mouth. It was a hard no to one of just two vans in our valley that were in our price range. As nasty as that dog breath test drive was, it led us to several illuminating conclusions: 

1. We take good care of our vehicles so we are used to a certain level of cleanliness and reliability.
2. It was freaky not knowing what this van had gone through. 
3. If it was this gross during the test drive, what other issues would surface over time?
4. The dog breath van was not worth its $15,000 price.
5. It was time to triple our van budget.

We test drove a Mercedes passenger van just to satisfy Jeff's curiosity, and then went to Costco. While we were driving home, we discussed our conclusions after driving the deadly dog breath van. Once we had swallowed the painful pill of increasing our van budget from $16k to $40k, I did an online search for vans less than 3 years old within a 50 mile radius of our house. My search yielded three results. THREE vans within 50 miles of Sunnyside. (I should add that there were plenty of Dodge Caravans and Chrysler Pacificas available, but we automatically ignored all Chrysler and Dodge vans because we've test driven them before and they are too cramped for our height.) Only two of the three vans I found were less than $50,000. Gasp. Gulp. Gag. 

Both available vans happened to be white 2020 Honda Odysseys and they were both at the same dealership in the tri cities (an hour from our house in the opposite direction from Yakima). I called while we drove from Yakima home and asked when we could come to test drive one of the Hondas. 

"One of the Honda Odysseys just sold yesterday," the salesman informed me. 

I turned wide eyes to Jeff. We were down to ONE van. One. One possibility before we had to get super creative and adapt our car criteria yet again, or else take another, longer day and drive to dealerships farther away. We did not have time or interest in driving 3 hours to Seattle or Portland to buy a car. We did not have time to start over with car research and sift through alternative non-minivan vehicles! We did not want to settle for a too-short uncomfy Dodge Caravan! And we needed to get this done before school started. 

"Can we come test drive the second Honda today at 4pm?" I asked the salesman.

"Yes! I will reserve the van for you," he replied.

Back at home, Jeff and I unloaded our Costco food and plugged his car in for a brief charge before grabbing a quick lunch and heading out toward Kennewick (one of the tri cities). We stopped in Grandview on the way to borrow Jeff's parents' car since our electric car was too depleted for the full journey to Kennewick. At last we pulled in to a tiny, tidy dealership called Archibald's. There was no mechanic or shop on the premises and it was calm. I exhaled. Maybe this would work out. 

Hector, the salesman I had spoken to on the phone, greeted us and took us to the shady side of the building, where a gleaming white Honda Odyssey minivan was waiting, with the air conditioning already on. We opened the smooth sliding doors and admired the automatic trunk. The seats were buttery leather and the driver's seat had adjustable lumbar support. There were zero bad smells. It only had 32k miles on it. Before we even test drove it, we were sold. I did the test drive on this one, and it was perfect. We told Hector we would buy the van after the first 2 minutes of the test drive.

Fast forward two hours and countless signatures later, to Jeff and Shaina: proud owners of a 3 year car loan! And a very fancy white 2020 Honda Odyssey SE. 

We got home at 7pm that night, 8 hours after we began our van hunt.

Hector took a picture for us before we went home.

Archibald's: Enjoy every mile. That slogan is right up my alley!

Costco date in between car shopping.

Jeff was all for getting one of those new electric SUVs with 5 seats and a tiny trunk. He kept teasing me about trunk space whenever we looked at cars. After we crammed half of our Costco cart into his little hatchback trunk and the other half into the back seat, I asked him if he thought this size would work for a family. He stubbornly said he thought we could make it work. I disagreed. Thankfully the electric SUVs were equal in price or more expensive than our minivan, so my preferences prevailed.

Home sweet home. Even though I've tried, I can't seem to think of a name for our new white van. VANilla? VANcy Nancy? I don't know. Names are hard! We rarely call our cars by their names very often anyways, and naming a machine seems ridiculous. It is still fun to name them something clever, though! Our previous van was named Vanna White, and it was awesome. Even though the name Vanna White is even more fitting for this new van, we can't reuse a name! So it is nameless. 

The White family now lives in a white house and owns two white cars.