Why can’t anything ever be simple? Ever since we found out about baby #2, we’ve been contemplating our vehicle situation. We have a small SUV and a pickup truck. It works fine for now, but we’d like something with a little more room for actual human beings and all of their legs.
We bought the truck my senior year of college, during Train’s first year of teaching. I say “we” because if it were up to him he’d still be driving his shit brown 1987 Ford Ranger (I know all my sorority sisters are recalling that truck fondly right about now). But let’s face it, we were engaged at that point, and no husband of mine was going to be driving a car almost as old as me. He has an F150 extended cab 4WD, and it has served him well. Me, on the other hand…well, it’s kicked my ass a few times and I’m not particularly sorry to see it go. The reason it has to go is because Sherman’s car seat sits in the middle of the back bench, basically putting his legs in between the two front seats. Adding a second car seat, which we always thought we could do because there are anchors, means each kid would sit behind one of the front seats, and also means Mommy and Daddy in the front would be eating dashboard every time we were in stop-and-go traffic. NOPE! Selfishly, I’m also tired of Train being the neighborhood and family haul guy just because he has a truck. Dude, Home Depot rents those things for $20/hour, move your own damn couch. We’ve gotten to the point where if someone needs the truck we just give them the keys, but that has resulted in some unfortunate air-freshener incidents which I don’t care to repeat. Plus, have you seen gas prices lately? Yowza.
Our other car is a CR-V, which we bought new about two years ago right after Sherman was born. I really love this car…pretty much the only thing that would make it better would be a line-in jack for the iPod. Or maybe XM radio. Anyway. I love how it handles, and it is plenty roomy for the three of us and all of our junk. It’s not too hard to get in and out of (like the Civic we had before, which was too low to the ground for me to wrestle Sherman into). The only problem is that in this car we have our Britax Marathon, which, holy jesus is that thing big. It’s in the middle of the backseat, and I asked Train a few months ago to move it to one side so it would be easier for me to get Sherman in and out. His verdict was that it is so large front-to-back that it wouldn’t fit behind one of the front bucket seats. Plus, we don’t go on a whole lot of car trips - the furthest we go is North Carolina, which is about 5 hours - but when we do, the CR-V is usually packed to the gills with luggage, pack n play, toys, snacks, computer, DVD player, etc. Adding a second child and all of his accompanying gear was overwhelming. So the idea is that we could get something bigger for serious family travel, and I could keep the CR-V just to get around.
We had settled on a minivan some time ago, thinking that it would give us plenty of space and extra passenger room if needed. I was SUPER psyched about automatic remote sliding doors. Every time I walked out of daycare with my arms full of keys, backpack, and Sherman I had a nice little daydream about the Honda Odyssey. But there is still the whole “minivan” stigma, and how we couldn’t really see ourselves in one, and Train didn’t think having two or three extra seats in the car just for when my parents came to visit was all that worth it.
So we had kind of decided on a Honda Pilot. We are obviously pleased with our current Honda and everybody knows they last forever. We do all of our service through our local Honda dealer who is just down the street, and the anal-retention in me likes having all of our records at one place. The Pilot has a third-row seat that could be kept in the fold-down position until needed (although with two car seats anchored in the second row, it would be next to impossible to actually sit in the third row, but hey…THE OPTION IS THERE).
We’ve kicked this into high gear recently because the Honda dealers around here have been doing promotion after promotion, and my bank at work has great auto loan rates. We’re in the position that what we make by selling the truck privately (probably Craigslist) can pay off the CR-V, so we can still have one car payment.
Train and I hate the whole car buying process. We are terrible negotiators and never stick to our “out the door” maximum that we agree on going in. We have purchased three cars together (new and used) and we still don’t feel like we’ve gotten the hang of this game.
My preference is to buy a new car because it’s easy. You have a warranty and you don’t have to worry about finding some guy’s fingernail clippings in the ashtray (Britt, looks to me like you need to re-tell that story). There are no variables about condition or mileage or Blue Book values. Sign the papers and you’re done, on the way home with the paper floormats in place and the new car smell. It’s fast, and time is something we have very little of lately.
Alas, we can’t afford a new Pilot and keep a similar car payment (obviously, since a Pilot is bigger than a CR-V). So we hit Craigslist to see what is out there and I was overwhelmed by all of the details. There’s this Pilot that’s newer, but has higher mileage, but a lower price. But then there’s this one, with less mileage and leather. Nothing is equal, there is no baseline. It’s exhausting.
So my second-favorite option is to buy a certified used car from the dealer where we bought the CR-V. They had quite a few 2005 Pilots and, oh darn, they are all EXL with leather interior and alloy wheels. Shoot.
We did the internet request-a-quote last night on 4 different 2005 Pilots, all with varying mileages and one with a Rear Entertainment System, which I had mixed feelings about. Of course the salesman looked up our records and got Train’s phone number and called us today on the way to our Mothers Day lunch from hell. I told him we could stop by this afternoon or maybe tomorrow. He told me he had just gotten 9 additional used Pilots in that were in the process of being certified.
After we got home from our disaster of a lunch-that-wasn’t-lunch-at-all, it was raining and I went up to the dealership to meet with the salesman. He had three PIlots with great low mileage, all the same color and trim level. I mentioned the truck and how we might want to trade it in (although really we want the cash, if we can save any hassle in this process we at least should check).
He takes the VIN for the truck and runs a report. I won’t even tell you what the trade in offer was because it was laughable as they always are, but come to find out there is an odometer discrepancy on the Carfax report. Some IDIOT at the Ford dealership here keyed in the wrong mileage on a routine service back in 2004, so when the truck was inspected in 2005 and the correct odometer reading was entered, it appeared to be lower than in 2004 which sends up a red flag. No dealership will accept a record like this as a trade-in, and any Craigslist buyer with half a brain would have questions about it. So we spent the evening digging through the glove box and our file cabinet looking for mileage verification. Luckily, Carfax wants a receipt from within 6 months prior to the error and within 6 months after, and we were able to find oil change/inspection receipts within that time frame. Hopefully it won’t take too long, but it’s still a pain in the ass we don’t need.
As far as the Pilot goes, the salesman told me his internet prices were the bottom line. I was so stunned by that bullshit I thanked him for his time and left, because…whatever. He obviously didn’t need my business enough to do anything but point to the sticker. Not to mention that we are repeat customers, and Train also brought his brother there to buy his first car. So we’re back to Craigslist, and the unending comparisons and hand wringing about which is the better deal, then chasing them all over northern Virginia.
