On Friday, January 6th, Michael and I ended up at the Honda Dealership in Burien. My Honda Odyssey had been having problems for awhile. The main culprit had been water. We had to replace the seal for the sunroof last year and that cost a pretty penny. But there was still water getting in the van. It smelled musty and you could feel the moisture in the air. Sometimes there would be water all over inside of the windows and you'd have to wipe them down to drive. The seatbelts would even feel damp. There were other things as well such as the slider door on the drivers side would just choose to not work sometimes. It was annoying. We had had that van since November 2011 and we had planned to have it for longer, but once water starts getting into a vehicle it really goes downhill after that.
I had originally asked Michael to contact the dealership to see if we could get our van fix. I told him it needed to get fixed or it was dead to me. He actually started looking into things and found that it would just be better to buy a van. He had looked at used vans, but it was only going to save us about $4K to buy used. For that small amount it made more sense to buy new.
He'd been emailing back and forth with Elijah from the Honda in Burien so we met with him that Saturday to find out how much they would give us for our old van in trade-in value.
It ended up being a good price so we negotiated the deal and sign on the dotted line for our new Honda Odyssey. The only thing was it was going to take about a week for the Honda we wanted to show up because it was still in transport. That was okay though we didn't mind waiting. At first I thought we'd just take our old van home until the new one showed up, but nope....we sold it to Honda so it wasn't ours anymore.
Out to van we went to take everything out of it and load it into the loaner.
She was a good van and got us lots of places on lots of adventures!
They ended up giving us a small loaner car that was fun to drive around in for a week, but I was ready for my new van!
On Saturday, January 14th, we were able to go pick it up. Of course we had bought the car, but hadn't even seen it yet so we did have the option of canceling the whole deal. We drove it around and loved it. Of course there was all sorts of things to figure out that would take time.
The next day was Owen's actual birthday so we spent that day focusing on him. The following day, Monday, January 16th, Michael had off because of MLK Day. We spent a lot of time in the van programing things to our liking.
Zeke and Ella came out to be with us and ended up using the new headphones to watch a movie in the van.
This is the reason why we go with a Honda Odyssey....sure there are other nice vans out there, but for me it's all about the entertainment system. My kids are great travelers and there's a reason for that. Yes, other vans have screens too, but they are in the back of the headrests and only in the middle seats. Honda has the central entertainment system so everyone watches the same screen. I don't mind my kids watching movies when we go on trips, but I want them to do it together. I do not bring their tablets on trips. I want them to engage with each other. We've even had situations where Owen doesn't like the movie that was chosen, but he has the choice to read or draw or watch the movie. 9 out of 10 times he'll end up watching the movie and he'll be laughing and having a good time. Then later when they are talking about the movie they can engage with each other. They all weren't staring at their own individual games or shows off in their own world. Okay....stepping off my soap box now! :)
It's like an airplane cockpit...kind of!
That's a nice looking van! I love the blue it's call Obsidian Blue. The only thing is it does show dirt more easily than the old van. I see a lot of car washes in our future!
And of course isn't this just what happens when you get a nice new car. On March 3rd, in the Winco parking lot while I was shopping, some person backed up and put in a dent in the front of my brand new van. Thankfully it's still drivable. It's still over $3K worth in damages because the bumper has so many sensors. They are actually having to completely replace the bumper, the side panel and the whole headlight assembly. It's nuts! Our van is scheduled to go into the shop on May 3rd if they have the parts for it. They said that since the van is brand new they are making the van not extra parts right now. It will get fixed and we're thankful for insurance to get it fixed.
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