The Van Saga

So, as the hot South Carolina summer crept in, the minivan decided to stop allowing us to use its air conditioning.  That was a BIG problem.  No A/C in SC is not fun.  So, I took it to our mechanic.  It turned out that if there was a place the system that could leak, it was.  So, a nice round estimate of $2000 would be needed to fix the system.

Well, the minivan had 156,000 miles on it.  It ran fine, but we also knew that Caravans generally had transmission issues, which we hadn't had to deal with yet.  So, we thought it would be best to replace it.  With cash-on-hand fairly low as we continue to try and rebuild our emergency fund, we were off to Craig's List to find a deal!  It turned out that minivans with low miles and reasonable ages were still quite expensive!!!  In our searches, however, we did notice that conversion vans were coming in at significantly lower mileages.  So, on Memorial Day we made some appointments to test drove a few vehicles.

Of course, when I do a search on Craig's List, my search radius is quite large (as I mentioned in the Brevard post when looking for a bicycle)!  So, the final van we looked at was up near Statesville, NC (about 2 hours away).  It was a 2002 with only 80,000 miles on it.  So, we drove it around a little.  It was bigger than Amber was used to, but she got the hang of it quickly, and we decided to go forward with it.  After waiting for the title to get notarized, I picked it up later in the week after a trip to Salem, VA. 

Once home, we did learn that it had a few more leaks than we were led to believe, and it did end up costing us an additional $2,000 in repairs!!  But, we do like it.  It's comfortable inside, and now that a DVD player is installed, the kids can enjoy watching movies on the installed TV.  We're still working on a name for it, though.  We've been calling it, "the Beast," but that just feels too negative.  If you have any suggestions, we're open to receiving them!

On the other end, we were able to sell the minivan to a pastor up in Nashville, TN (and you thought my search radius was large...his was 5 1/2 hours away!!).  He had a friend who could work on the air conditioning, so they'd be able to get that taken care of at a much lower cost than I could have.  He started a new church there, and we were able to give him a great deal for the vehicle.  It was great to meet him and pray with him about the ministry he has going on there.  Praise God for meeting needs on both ends of the transaction!