Flirting with Adulthood...

We started looking at used minivans yesterday.  3 car seats will simply not fit side by side in our current Mazda Tribute.  We have no choice, we need something bigger.

It was totally different than what I expected.

After church yesterday, in 2 hours we test drove 4 vans at 3 different dealerships.  Way faster than I anticipated.  I thought we would get stuck and not be able to get away from the "slimy" dealers.

We drove a Chrysler Town and Country, Dodge Grand Caravan, Honda Odyssey and a Toyota Sienna.

I am surprised at how well I am taking this.  Early in marriage Becky and I literally shook on our commitment to never buy a minivan.  Wow, things sure have changed.  It is a no-brainer now.

The dealers weren't slimy like I expected.  Sure, they asked all the probing questions that I expected.  They tried to sell, but as Becky put it, that is their job.  You can't really blame them for that.  Although they tried to sell, they really didn't push too much.  As you may be aware of my disdain for sales tactics, I was quite relieved.

I was surprised that the dealers knew nothing about the vans they were selling.  Again, Becky's observation was probably correct, it is probably because the used vehicles they were selling were not their specialty.  Still, I was surprised how little they knew.  Honestly, it wouldn't take much preparation to know how to stow the "stow-n-go" seats!  We had to show the dealer how to do it...

I was surprised at how new each of the salesmen were.  All 3 dealers were on the job less than a month.  Can we say turnover in the used car dealer market?

I was surprised at my willingness to walk away.  We just said no and stood up.  There was one we liked, and the dealer could tell that and really wanted us to negotiate, but I was quite willing to walk away.  I felt good about that.  We are not in any hurry.  I guess it also helped that we didn't have our finances together.  Good thing I guess.

No decisions, but we have a clear direction.  That feels good.  Now, we have to shake the money tree to figure out how to make it happen.

Rob