A Thankful Post

We currently own two cars in our family – a 2000 Nissan Pathfinder:

And a 1995 Geo Prism:

We bought the Pathfinder back before we were a family of five, back when Tom was going through his first bout of unemployment, back when we owned a Dodge Caravan that had left us stranded more than once and was threatening to cough up yet another transmission.   The Pathfinder has been a great car.  It has never left us stranded yet.  We’ve never had to do emergency work on it – all the work we’ve done has been on our timetable (how great is that??).  When Andrew and Haley joined our family, we purchased an aftermarket third seat and it has been roomy enough to take us back and forth to Utah in relative comfort.  We’ve felt really lucky to have bought this car.  Even with 207,000 miles on it (approximately) it still drives really well and doesn’t give us any cause for concern – except that this is a lot of miles for a car …

We bought the Prism about three years ago when the price of gas was making us shriek.  Tom was commuting about 90 miles a day in the Pathfinder and the cost was killing us.  We still had our Mazda truck but it wasn’t safe enough to drive anywhere but right in town (and wouldn’t have been any cheaper to commute in).  We bit the bullet, browsed the Craiglist ads, and found a cheap little commuter car with an engine we thought would still have some miles on it.  It’s not a pretty car (I really should post a picture of the real thing!) and it shakes pretty badly when driven above 60 miles an hour.  But we totally made our money back on this car.  We saved the price of the car in the first year of commuting.  It has 210,000 miles on it (approximately).

We’re thinking it’s time to add a car to the family.  We really need a newer vehicle (just how long can we tempt fate with all our trips over the mountains??) and a roomier one as well.  While the Pathfinder was good when all the kids were littler, we have some big bodies in the car now.  We’re packed in tight!  Plus, we have a soon-to-be licensed teenager in the family and frankly, I’m tired of driving him to school.  The little purple Prism is just right for getting around town – and the shaking means he won’t be speeding!

Tom & I test drove a couple of mini-vans yesterday and I think I’m leaning towards a Kia Sedona.  Tom says he doesn’t really care as long as it’s reliable and we can afford it.  Any thoughts out there?  We drove a Honda – but it didn’t really make my heart flutter and Odysseys are pretty pricey – even used.  My family are Dodge Caravan drivers – but we had one of those and it was a lemon and we are scared to go back there … (totally irrational but …)  We’ve thought about the Toyota – but they also have the pricey problem.  We can get a 2009 (or 2010) Sedona for under $16,000 which would be great as far as car payments go.  Anyway – who knows?  We’ve been talking about getting a new car since last summer and we just barely took a test drive.

But while we may add a new car, we won’t forget what great cars we’ve got now – they are awesome!!