Episode 2.13-Vehicle Drama

I think its everyone’s favorite thing when a car breaks down.

Two weeks ago when I was writing the post about being homeless I was sitting in Panera Bread waiting for our car to get out of the shop.  It was supposed to be a simple AC recharge.  Then they called:  “Mr Purcell, ‘the check engine light’ that you mentioned, was indicating a bad catalytic converter.  It will be another $650 to fix it.”

Of course, that wasn’t the end of it.  They replaced the catalytic converter, but botched the job and had to redo it.  AND, my AC didn’t charge–bad compressor.

Well, we had to go on a trip to Iowa so we went without AC and started thinking about getting a new car.  The AC fix would be anywhere from $1000 to $3500 depending on who we talked to and what parts we were buying.

As we were pondering this whole deal, it struck me that perhaps God knows something we don’t.  Maybe He knows we will need a different vehicle in Midtown.  Maybe He thinks we need a minivan.

Minivan.  That word doesn’t sit well with me.  But, they do hold more people than our CR-V, which we’re starting to outgrow.

So, when we got back we started shopping.  After lots of shopping around and driving nearly a dozen vehicles we think we found the right deal:  an 04 Town and Country with 50K miles on it.

Here’s the cool part.  We were dealing with four different dealerships.  One offered us $5k for our Honda and two offered $6k.  The fourth offered $9k!  With our trade in we were able to get a great vehicle, lower our payment (by $1.50!), AND upgrade to the minivan.  (Ok, I’m still trying to convince myself that the minivan is an upgrade!)

The Minivan...we are officially a family now.

Category : Season 2