Our Dodge Caravan died on my way back home from seeing my parents last week - transmission fail. So this week has been a zoo trying to take care of that, getting my wife to doctors, purchase another vehicle, and o yeah, try to get some work done at the office!
Before we purchased anything, my wife and I sat done and discussed what our goal was for the vehicle, and then what type of vehicle we wanted to search for (SUV, Van, Small Car, etc.). We decided that our goals were the following:
- Do not go into debt – use whatever cash we have on hand, even if it means missing a “great deal”. No debt for depreciating assets.
- Buy a van for the family to use around the area. Does not need to make long trips, just able to get us to places within a 30 minute drive (maybe an hour to my parents!).
With those goals, I did some research on the internet through Kelly Blue Book and Edmunds web sites. I also called a friend from church who owns a business doing repair work on cars and also with his brother sells used cars (separate site). FYI the dealership is called Apple Auto. Anyway, he began looking for what we wanted – a cheap,no thrills van. And he found it! He let us have it for 2 days to drive around to see if we liked it (it’s nice to know a dealer!). We test drove it, the vehicle worked great, but just to be sure I took it to another friend who is an auto mechanic and had him put it up on the rack to check out. His only suggestion was new tires before winter.
So now we are the proud owners of a very used, high mileage, 1997 GMC Safari. Basically it is a truck made to look like a van 
Our minimum expectation is that it will last through the busy summer season when we are going so many different directions as a family. If it makes it one year, we will come out slightly ahead. If it could last 2 years, we would be in great shape! Here’s hoping!
