I was encouraged by several people to consider minivans. This was a hard thing for me to swallow, friends. I have never liked minivans. I have said on more than one occasion that I would never get a minivan. Candidly, I think they're ugly. And I struggle with the stigma of being a "soccer mom" or whatever. But I decided I should at least test drive one.
James decided to skip class Friday so we could search for a vehicle in earnest. (We are just not cut out to be a one-car family. I don't know how people do it!) We left the house at 9:30am and drove to Raleigh. Several sisters in the ward recommended a dealership called Hanna Imports, so we went to check them out. I test drove a Toyota Highlander I'd found on their website, but it was not in very good shape.
And then I asked to test drive a Toyota Sienna.
A minivan.
And I liked it.
...
It's still ugly as sin on the outside. (Sorry to anybody who thinks minivans aren't ugly. If you exist.) But beyond that, it's everything we wanted and more. Minivans are just so much more spacious than SUVs. The gas mileage is better. The price is better. And minivans are just more suited to kids: the auto-sliding doors (than can open from the remote, or a button from the driver's seat), and the lower clearance! Joel could climb in all by himself (which he did as soon as the door opened) which he couldn't come close to doing in the SUV.
I was deeply considering the Sienna. But if I was going to cave and consider minivans, I also wanted to test drive a Honda Odyssey, and Hanna Imports didn't have any. So after grabbing some lunch, we headed to the Leigh Honda dealership. (Way better pricing than Crown Honda in Durham, btw.)
After test driving the Odyssey, I was convinced. It had everything the Sienna had, and then some. My favorite feature? The third row folds down flat. In the Sienna, the seats are removable. But the folding down is WAY easier for me to deal with, especially by myself. And it had a DVD player. Not on our must-have list, but definitely nice.
So it began. Much discussion. Some decent haggling (if I do say so myself). And finally an agreement. Then much waiting for paper-shuffling. (Why does buying a car take so long???) We were at the dealership for 4+ hours. With our kids. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it still wasn't super fun.
We finally got into the financial manger's office to sign and pay. We got pressured to buy add-ons we weren't interested in. And then pressured some more. We had liked our salesman, but the financial guy was pushy and downright rude.
And when all was said and done...our withdrawal was denied. James had already called our credit union to let them know we were making a large purchase. He called again, and was told that they wouldn't actually let it go through. They "couldn't take the risk" because his debit card "might have been stolen" and it was "too great an amount" to allow. James was on the phone for half an hour or more trying to get them to cooperate; he answered every single verification question they had, and still they would not let us have our money. AND our credit union isn't open on the weekends at all. So we were given no choice but to leave without the van and return on Monday with a certified check. We were SOOOOOO frustrated! We have decided to close our accounts with this credit union and be done with them. Urg.
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment