Big Blue

A week ago Saturday we drove to Delaware and bought a car.

Because we're insane and the only way we ever manage to do anything is by doing it in the craziest way possible.  But that usually seems to work for us, so we keep going with it.

Anyway, despite how sudden it might seem to you, this was actually something we'd been trying to figure out for a long time now.

Ever since Camille entered the picture, our van has been filled to capacity.  If the whole family goes somewhere, every seat belt is taken.  And that's fine, but it's a little tight.  It means that any time someone comes to see us, we need to use another car.  It means that we can't ever bring friends along with us, which is kind of sad.  (And makes me long for the days of double-buckling.  Remember being able to do that?)

It also means that the kids are pretty crowded in the back of the car.  And Ryder is in that fun stage where he delights in annoying all his siblings.  (I think it's a middle child thing.  As a middle child, I'm totally allowed to say that.  What I can't remember, though, is when (or if?) I ever grew out of that stage...?)  But even if they're on their best behavior, if we're going anywhere that requires much luggage-- a long trip, or camping, or really anywhere for longer than one night-- it's pretty hard to fit it all into the car.  We could get away with squeezing more in for a while by cramming soft stuff (pillows, sleeping bags, etc) under the kids' feet.  But they're also getting taller, too, and that option is quickly going away...

Crowded much?  This is heading home from New York last April

And here's Bentley looking less than happy coming home from Great Wolf Lodge

And we were only there for two nights and mostly packed swimsuits!

So we decided we probably needed to get a bigger car.  The problem, though, is how to go about doing that.  Because most cars max out at 8 seats.  Suburbans, larger mini-vans, and most SUVs all pretty much have 8 seats.  Which means we'd spend all the money for a new car just to get one more measly seat!  And that didn't seem worth the hassle or the money.

It was Craig who finally decided that what we really needed was a big van.  He began researching them and discovered the Ford Transit series.  They're a new model-- Ford only began making them in 2015.  And they come with 10, 12, and 15 seats (or 2 seats and a HUGE back, if you work construction).  We also discovered Nissan Passenger vans, which come with 12 seats.  I kind of liked the Passengers better-- they feel more like they're designed for a family, whereas the Transit feels like it's designed to haul as many people as possible to and from the airport.  But alas-- the Passengers also cost about $10K more, and are harder to come by used.  With them not having as many seats, either, I wasn't quite sure what I would be spending all that extra money on.

That was another thing I decided-- with all the options out there, it seemed to me that if you're going to get a big van, you may as well get a BIG VAN.  So I liked the idea of getting a 15-seater.  We'll probably take out the back row most of the time, but I like knowing we can put it in whenever needed.  If you only have 12 seats to start out with, you can't add anything to that.  (Plus, with the Passenger, those 12 seats filled the car, so if you wanted any trunk space, you'd still need to remove seats.)

So we settled on the Transit.  We test drove a few, and figured out which things were important to us: for a car this big, we needed a back-up camera.  That was non-negotiable.  And I wanted a sliding door.  If I'm going to be hauling kids around, I want to be able to park without worrying about the car next to me getting scratched up every time they fling the doors open!  And then, even though I sort of hated myself for caring, I decided that if we could find one, I really wanted a van that wasn't white.  The huge white vans are what you always see for churches, and while I expect we'll do a LOT of carpooling for our church in the years to come, I just wanted to look a little different from that.

We told all this to a car dealership that promised that they moved a LOT of Transits and they'd find just what we wanted.  And then we never heard from them again.  This didn't bother me-- our Sienna is old and ugly with very high mileage, but it's still running fine.  I didn't feel like we were in any rush.  But it did make me appreciate that maybe what we were looking for in a car wasn't super easy to find.

On Thursday, I was messing around with my banking app, when I noticed a feature to help you find a car.  I decided to try looking for the car we wanted.  I actually figured out how to search for vans with sliding doors-- and I found one!  It was exactly what we wanted, except white.  I called the dealer in Woodstock, Virginia (about an hour and a half away) and set up an appointment for Saturday morning.  I'd found it so easily, I decided to check and make sure there weren't any other vans out there that I wanted.  And then I found an even better van-- it was a year older and had a few more miles, but it was cheaper, had some upgrades and was blue.  And it was in Delaware.  But oh, I wanted that van.

I called the dealership and asked if there was any way they could move it.  Nope.  They only move new cars, not used ones.  The sales guy suggested we facetime so we could see it better, but Craig wasn't home any of the times they were open.  I was bummed.  We'd have to wait until the next Saturday to see the car, and it might get sold by then.  I figured I may as well see what time we could facetime Saturday morning, so I called again, hoping to hear their hours, and got a human!  I asked how late they were open Friday, and was told 9pm (the guy I'd talked to before said they closed at 3pm!!!).  So I asked to speak to a salesman and didn't mention that I'd already spoken with someone.  The new guy was happy to facetime with us.  We tried to negotiate a price, although they didn't come down much.  But we thought it was a pretty good price still.  So after much hemming and hawing, we decided to buy it.

We left the house at 8am the first day after school got out.  We dropped Bentley and Camille off with Grandma and Grandpa and kept the rest of the kids with us.  And we drove to Delaware.  We got a quick lunch, and then went to see the car.  We drove it around.  We looked it all over.  And we bought it!

The drive home was painful.  I let Craig take the new car, because I knew all the kids would want to ride in it-- I stayed in the old car, but at least didn't have anyone bugging me for a few hours.  But I was so tired and keeping my eyes open was hard work.  I called everyone I knew and sang along to Les Miserables to keep me awake.  But we made it, eventually.  We got home at 10pm, though, so I'm not kidding when I say it was a looooooong day.  But so far we're very happy with our new car.

After church

You can see just how big it is

From the front

Look at all those seats!

We've been considering all sorts of names for this thing-- my favorites so far are Bluey & the Beast, the Blue Bayou, the Blue Whale, and just Big Blue.  But knowing my family and our knack for super cool nicknames for things, it will probably just end up being called The Van.  Or perhaps, the Big Van.

In the meantime, our next project will be selling the mini van!