Farewell old friend, hello new love

We said goodbye to our Jeep on Saturday. It was quite hard for me. Which I know sounds odd, it is after all just a car. Actually I take that back. It's not just a car. It's a Jeep. The first (and only to date) new car I've ever owned. We owned that Jeep for almost 5 years (we fall 3 months short of the 5 year annivesary). That Jeep treated us well. But alas, we have a growing family and it has outlived its usefulness. It was a tight squeeze with just the 2 kids, we knew there was absolutely NO WAY we could put 3 kids in it.

Let me tell you a little story. Gabe and I, with the impending arrival I am carrying in my womb, knew that by September we would have to purchase a bigger vehicle. We've debated over a mini-van, Suburban and Expedition. Our preference has always been the Suburban. Saturday we took a jaunt to a car dealership with the intention of just starting our search. We were curious to see what's available out there and at what price. We had done a little research and knew the market value of several years of Suburbans. Our goal was to get a 2001, since we knew we couldn't afford any younger than that, and that was the first year of the new body style. And we figured our Jeep is a 2001, so we wouldn't be down grading any if we got a comparable year. We also hoped to get a vehicle with around the same mileage, 75,000. One problem we found with these big family vehicles (other than the money rushing out of our wallets into the gas pumps) is that they tend to have LOTS of miles on them. My brother has a 2001 Yukon XL, which they purchased soon after we purchased our Jeep, and their vehicle has 35,000 more miles on it than our Jeep. I guess those vehicles are just made to be taken on family trips!! (We have made several family trips in my parents' mini-van). I digress. Our other criteria was to find a 2-wheel drive Suburban. 4-wheel drive is so overrated (we had it on the Jeep and just used it for the first time this last winter when we got stuck in Tahoe during a snow storm. It went unused for almost 5 years!!). So we get to this car lot and as we get out of the Jeep we are promptly apprehended, I mean, welcomed by a car salesman (one of the worst occupations on this planet in my opinion). His name was Dan. He was a tall fellow with a bright yellow sweater on. The first vehicle we looked at happened to be a 2001 Suburban, 2-wheel drive. Knowing it would be WAY out of our price range I didn't think much of it, other than OH MY GOSH I WANT THIS TRUCK. When I found out the mileage I almost wet myself. Just under 63,000 miles. WHAT?! Less than the Jeep???!!! We perused a few more vehicles and decided, what the heck, let's talk numbers. The cost was more than we thought we could afford, but we threw caution to the wind and went inside with Dan.

(Now I want to interject here and say it is already at this point probably 1:30 or 2:00 pm. We had both kids with us and my dad - since he's quite the vehicle expert. The kids' nap time is about 1:00 pm. We are already pass that.)

Well, good old Dan and his sleezy car salesman boss, Boyce, actually made the monthly payments something we could afford. They offered us decent money to trade in our Jeep (which saved us from actually having to clean it and go through the whole selling process ourselves). So after 4 hours from when we walked into the office, we were driving away in our new Suburban. The kids were basket cases in those 4 hours. We pumped them full of snacks, balloons, toys, pacifier, threats and hugs.. Not much worked. London was running amuck in the dealership and Adelaide was just sitting in the stroller crying. It was a horrible 4 hours.

Now that we've had our new vehicle a few days, I can say we are so happy with it. The kids are no longer cramped. Gabe no longer has to sit in the trunk if an extra person wants to ride with us somewhere. People no longer have to complain how hard it is to get into that cramped back seat. This thing is a tank. I love it. I have yet to master confidence when it comes to parking it and we can no longer fit into compact spaces. But we are a happier, more spacious family because of our lovely Suburban. We can't wait till we get to drive it down to Disneyland in a month!