Really Living 14 Oct 2008 06:08 am
Living Deliberately In The Area of Transportation
A burning issue on my plate at the moment is, “What to drive?”. Okay, more accurately, it’s “How am I going to pay for something different to drive?” but one question does lead to another and there is a little web of them before me. I’m in that place of knowing my current daily bread is about to become toast and I’m not quite sure what’s coming next.
The van I currently drive is 10 years old and has a bit of story to it, as all old things do. My dad helped us find it 8 years ago; it had been a company vehicle so was in great shape. It had 100k miles when we got it but was as clean and tight as a new van. This particular model of Dodge Caravan has a Mitsubishi engine in it and has a reputation for going the distance with minimal repairs and that has been true in this case. Other than routine maintenance, of which it sorely lacked until the past year, it has held up *marvelously*.
I may need to qualify that statement, because standards of what people drive differ. Some people feel very strongly about crash test ratings, special features, speed, or style. What I want most from a vehicle: a sound engine that won’t break down at unexpected times and places, enough room for kids to be comfortable, and no car payment. I’ve had that and more from this van…buying an older vehicle means the anxiety level with the inevitable stains that come with kids is less. It’s been very reliable, with predictable issues and no major breakdowns that left me stranded. When I got it my oldest was a toddler in a car seat and he’s now an adult-sized leggy kid who dominates the front passenger seat. I get great gas mileage (can go from TN to Fl on one tank, which I’ve done many, many times this year) and not ever having a car payment has actually been an acknowledged grace several times over the past several, mostly lean, years.
A year ago I drove it on tires I didn’t know were dry-rotted, from TN to FL in the middle of the night. It was 164,000 miles then and I was hoping to make it to 200k. I call it my “Total Money Makeover Beater” and want to see this paid-for baby go as far as I can. My dad got ahold of it and I think he fueled quite a bit of his anger over the way I’d been treated into making the car right. He slapped high-mileage tires on it, fixed the belt issues, the fuel leak, and had the mechanic check the transmission…the verdict is that they think this transmission can make it another 100k! That would be about 300k on the original transmission! My goal seemed within reach.
I’m not very engine-savvy but I know a few things: the repairs a year ago were over $1500 and saved us having to find me another vehicle right away. I have to keep oil in it: it goes through a quart every 150 miles or so via a leak that can’t be pinpointed. When the AC broke last spring, I decided to skip the repair my dad was willing to help with; my parents absorbed the 5 of us into their family this year and the expense has been too great to add to it unless absolutely necessary. A van in Fl heat with no AC is no picnic but it IS doable. The headliner is falling, the outside is scratched, but that makes trips to the beach pretty relaxed! The groan in the front end is the strut and it can run fine in spite of that. And I love being able to plaster my bumper stickers on it freely…though I suspect that is a stage and will soon pass. Mostly it just felt good to be able to do it again, like I once had on my first car (a whole ‘nother blog…), Gladys.
I feel an attachment of sorts to this van. I guess people sometimes do feel an affection for their cars but they are usually some kind of specialty car, not a grocery-getting old water wagon of a minivan used to schlep kids around the country. But when I left last year my priest blessed it. My dad repaired it. When the doctor said, “get in the car and go”, we did…up the east coast in snow and ice and had safe journeys, and great memories, the entire way. This van and I went through a lot (dare I say, ‘together‘?) and I sort of trust it.
And now the odometer reads, “221,368″. That is almost 60k miles put on it in a year, and is 21k more miles than I hoped for a year ago. The weather is cooler so the missing AC isn’t missed as much. The radio is shot, the strut-groaning is louder, and there is a new clicking up in the middle. Two weeks ago the brain caught the wackness and my rear wipers decided to stay on permanently, the heater comes on of it’s own accord, and the blicker flickers when it feels like it.
She’s gettin’ old.
But what does one choose next? An SUV seems a hideous choice with gas the way it is. I will still do a lot of driving, though not as much as the past year, in the coming year and then hopefully much less after that. I have four long-legged kids who will have adult bodies within the lifetime of my next car. Another van would be okay but often feels too small for the amount of big-bodies I tow. A car is much, much too small but I’d love to have that kind of gas mileage available. I know I want the next one to have a few things this one does not, like tinted windows and power locks/windows, and dual AC would be Great Gravy.
And the top priority, of course, is that I can afford it. That means PAID FOR. I’ve not forgotten all that Dave Ramsey taught me…and when I look at my life, I know a car payment is delusional. Work is good, the economy is hideous, and please don’t ask about Child Support and the speed of the court system. My little “car” envelope in my TMM system is a bit flat. I’m sure I’m far from the only one in this predicament.
Every week we pray the Lord’s Prayer and when we say, “give us this day our daily bread”, I say a little prayer of thanks for my van. It does what it’s supposed to do with little fanfare and much consistency. And maybe it’s good to drive around in something so honest: a scratched up, rough-edged, vehicle with structural integrity that gets us where we need to go is a true picture of Life in 2008. As surely as 2009 is coming, life is changing, and I think it’s a safe bet to say I’ll be driving something else next year, and it too can be a true reflection of a life in progress: may it be cleaner, safer, reliable, and debt-free.
This is one of the goals for the coming year, articulated to some extent.
Onward~
on 14 Oct 2008 at 8:43 am 1.AnnMarie said …
Don’t dismiss SUVs out of hand. Maybe they don’t get the great gas mileage of a car, but will your family fit in a small car? Probably not.
We have a 2004 Honda CR-V SUV. It gets about 20 MPG (more on highways). Despite my environmentalism, an SUV makes sense for our family. When we got it, we were expecting to have two kids in car seats and two large (80#) dogs, plus my husband is a bigger guy (6″, over 200#). We have only one kid (for now), but otherwise, the reasons we bought it still ring true. Being able to isolate the dogs in the back is the primary reason–in a minivan, for instance, that couldn’t be done.
But we bought a middle-sized SUV (it actually has the same base as some Honda cars, rather than a truck base like bigger SUVs). There are smaller ones, too, but they didn’t fit DH (nor adults in the back seat, which we knew would happen whenever family visits).
We also like it’s capacity. We can easily take 2-week vacations out east (with a baby including car seat, high chair, pack n play, box of diapers, plus our regular stuff). We can haul our bikes plus her trailer. We could put stuff on top, although we never have. We put in a trailer hitch so could get a UHaul trailer some day across country if necessary.
5 years later, we still adore our SUV. The only thing that would make it better would be if it were hybrid; hopefully in another 5 years when we finally buy a replacement, they’ll have them.
on 18 Oct 2008 at 11:20 pm 2.sharon said …
Hey, Tia!! We have matching dark green vans that both have miles of history to them. Ours is a 1997, and has 212,000 miles on it. I am hoping with the new transmission from 2 years ago, we will go to 300,000 as well! When we fnally have to replace the van, I will so miss the “Buy Local When You Can, Support Your Neighbor, Not The Man”, sticker and the 1982 World’s Fair sticker on the back, that my kids stuck on.
What was comical this summer, was when an older gentleman in a nice, new, shiny truck, ran smack into us without braking! The thing that was comical, was that I was expecting the van to get fixed, and we would be on our way. I didn’t THINK about the fact that if the repairs exceed the value of the car, then the vehicle is considered “totalled”. We did not get a fixed car, but we did get a little check from the insurance company. This fact was just fine with me and R, but I have one teenage son, that would much prefer his already uncool ride, to at least be unblemished!
I hope to enjoy many more miles in our old van. I cannot imagine having to replace it NOW!
Give me a call sometime!