I have been tempted to have my morning cup of coffee in our new van. It smells like new car, it's clean, and quiet. That Toyota commercial is brilliant.
With the impending arrival of #3 (gender unknown) we found ourselves FINALLY in need of another vehicle. For the last 20 months, we have crammed our double stroller, groceries, carseats, and selves - yes, all at once- into our humble Corolla. It's been a great lil car despite its lack of modern conveniences like power windows or locks.
After copious research mostly focused on reliability and trunk space I had selected the Toyota Sienna as our van of choice. Matthew was not pleased that I wasn't keen on the Suburban or the Yukon. I hope I never have to drive one because I'm just plain freaked out at their size. But, he looked at gas mileage, 5-yr cost to own, storage space, and listened to my various rational and emotional reasons for selecting the Sienna. None of which, I might add, included the commercial with the mom running out to sit in her Sienna in her bathrobe. At least that I listed to Matthew.
We started our search on craigslist and drove 45 min out to see a 2007 listed at a great price. Not having driven any new vans yet or smelled that intoxicating "new car" smell, we were really pleased with it. It was rough inside - like we found a melted crayon and toothbrush sculpture inside one of the little storage cubbies, but it ran fine and seemed like a fair price.
Then we went to a dealership that claimed online to have a dozen used Siennas. We got there and there was one. We drove it and it was nice. Overpriced with bleach stain in the trunk. But nice. The slick salesguy got us in his office and started really drilling us about whether we could see ourselves in THIS car. Trying to get us (me) emotionally invested. I said "yes" and so he ran off to fetch numbers from his bossman. I kept looking out the window at the van and by the time he got back with his overinflated interest rate numbers (he gave us a 17% sample rate, since he hadn't checked our credit. gaaahhh!) I was ready to give him and Matthew my irrational reason for not wanting this van we had just wasted an hour driving and looking at.
It was gold.
I told the menfolk. They both just kind of looked bemusedly at me. And then I told them the story of why I would never buy another gold car. When I bought my Corolla after graduation, we had to leave the lot with a car since my parents were helping finance and they were splitting town. I wanted a manual transmission new car and guess what the color was of the only manual transmission car they had. Gold. And I got it. It made the joy of my new car a bit less because I didn't like the color. Five years later, I wasn't going to "settle" again when we had options.
Matthew chuckled and starting laughing and the sales guy just looked blank. He started talking about how much it would cost to paint. But we were done. I apologized and felt very much like a woman and very pregnant. It wasn't until I realized that this van could be ours that I hated gold so much.
And there were more revelations to come....
Maybe tomorrow since naptime is over :(.
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