I have a van now

Remember the night Herriman nearly burned down. I got a van that weekend. Looking back, I wish we had made that decision any other weekend. We have been considering a van for the last two years but were waiting for a compelling reason to justify the added expense a larger and more expensive vehicle.

I finally found a compelling reason to make the purchase after driving a carpool 4 trips per week. Digging out seatbelts created quite a problem and more often than not I had scraped up and bloodied hands from doing so.

So we shopped around a lot. And by a lot I mean a really lot. We knew what we wanted to pay and finally found a place willing to sell for that price. Forest Motors in Orem.

They are a small lot specializing in Acura MDX’s and Honda Odyssey’s. In fact that had quadruple the inventory that even the Honda dealers had. We found a really nice (although grey in color) van with leather seats for a price we were willing to pay. We drove the van. We loved the van.

While doing our consumer inspection we noticed they had done a rather poor job of detailing the car. There were still crumbs and stuff in the crevasses. We should have paid more attention to that detail looking back.

Anyway…we bought the van. My bother Jason noticed the van had four different brand tires all with different wear levels. Herriman started on fire and burned all day and all night. We evacuated our house (by choice, not force). We drove around and noticed the engine doing some funky things. We worried all night about buying a lemon and our town and home burning down.

We took the car back on Monday and reported the funkiness. They looked into our complaints. Gave us new tires, replaced the front breaks and rotors. They took the car into the Honda Dealer to have the engine problem fixed. Turns out it was a recall and the software was making the engine “jutter.” They also fixed a recall on the breaks. They were really squishy. I also told them the A/C seemed a little weak. I watched as they checked the interior air filter. As they opened the box all of these fall leaves came out. About a laundry basket full. The thing was filthy.

I was happy that they helped us and didn’t charge us a dime. I was left however with a really unfavorable impression of the dealership. They should have done all this before selling us the van.

The next day I left all the lights on in the van and the battery was dead in the morning. So I got a jump. After I got a jump I could no longer get the radio to work due to the anti-theft system. I again called the dealership who gave me the code. Nice enough.

A day or so later we tried to play a CD in our new 6 disc changer that came with the van. It didn’t work at all. It was like it was just a decoration. I took the van back down to them and drove through a terrible rainstorm and learned that the front drivers side windshield wiper was shredded. It didn’t function and created quite the safety hazard for me while I was in route to the dealership again.

Turns out the previous owner had been using the CD player as a piggy bank and it was full of change. They replaced the CD player for me again free of charge. Nice, but a pain.

Another day, we had been up Mill Creek Canyon with Steve’s family, we dropped off his mom and pulled out of the driveway and heard some big scraping sound as we drove. One of their neighbors flagged us down and told us we were dragging something. Don’t worry, it was just the under part of our front bumper. Nothing makes you feel more stupid than driving around a new car with the temporary registration sticker still in the window while dragging your front bumper. We drove back to his folk’s house and duct taped the thing back on. Awesome. Another trip to the dealership. A simple repair really. Again free. That one might have been my fault. Pulling too far forward in a parking stall is not good for your Odyssey’s front bumper. Noted.

Then a few days later I noticed that when I turned the key to the ignition it was a little slow to start. It made me very nervous that at some point it wouldn’t start at all. Then a dash board indicator came on showing a tire pressure related issue. We didn’t worry about it too much until another light came on the dash board indicating a problem with the vehicle stability assistance. The owner’s manual indicated that we should take it to the dealer if this light showed. So we did and learned that the sensor was bad. Unfortunately it was a $700 part. Yes that’s the part, not including labor. They also told me my rear brake pads were completely worn and nearly metal to metal. Nice.

I cried a little there at the dealer and miraculously, Honda agreed to pay for all but $100 dollars of the sensor replacement. We took the van to our regular mechanic who replaced the brake pads for all of $64 dollars.

The ignition was really slow and I really was hesitant to drive it at all, so I took it down the nice fellows at the Auto Zones and found out the batter way almost all dead. So I was lucky enough to buy a new battery too. The Auto Zone guy put it in for me because I have never done that before.

SO now…the only issue my new van has is a “pingy” vibration coming from the steering column. It only occurs about 50 percent of the time and I am going out of my mind trying to figure out what could be causing it. The dealership tells me it would be very expensive to diagnose what is causing the rattle, so next time I have a thousand spare dollars, maybe I’ll have it looked at.

So if you ever want to ask me how I like my new van…consider how much time you have before you ask it. You may be in for a long story.

It did get us both to and from Moab very safely, convieniently and comfortably. We even had a pic-nic in it.
It's very roomy.

It is very nice and very comfortable. I have a hard time trusting it, but over time hope to build a relationship of trust with it and drive it for a good long time. Would I recommend anyone buy from Forest Motors? Probably not.

I hear Karl Malone Toyota is having their Grand Opening sale (after being in business for 2 years) The new Sienna is pretty sweet.

Steve’s post-note: I was convinced to buy a late model, low mileage used car after reading Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. Dave is right, after two months, this car feels as new as a brand new car and we will save a LOT of money—even with all the repairs and trips to various dealerships and mechanics. However, this purchase may have cost Kristin about a year’s worth of life in the stress it has caused.

For the record, I have purchased four cars.
--First one: Used. Lemon. Didn’t have a catalytic converter. When I took it in for its SECOND emissions inspection, the guy looked at me like I was a criminal. I suspect the first inspection was not actually performed, only paid for.
--Second one: New. Perfect.
--Third one: New. Perfect.
--Fourth one: Used. Major problems. Truth be told, it is a very nice car and I’ve gotten to like nearly everything about it—now that most of the parts have been replaced.