How I came to own a minivan

I honestly never thought the day would come. Ever. I refused to even consider the idea. I don't know what came over me (maybe let's blame pregnancy hormones?) but there is officially a sleek piece of metal in the shape of a minivan sitting in front of the house. WHAT?!

Man oh man did we try to fight the issue. We tried every argument known to man, trying to convince ourselves that a mid-size SUV with a 3rd row would suit our needs. But then we tried sitting in the 3rd row of many such vehicles only to deem them essentially useless as even I could not fit back there without my knees hitting the seat in front of me. And forget about trunk space! With the 3rd row of seats up, there basically wasn't any which defeats the whole purpose in my mind.

It isn't that we necessarily NEED a seven-seater "family car" at this juncture but we definitely needed a new car. I think we all know by now that I have had a love-hate relationship with our Jetta. It's so stinkin' cute, it's fun to drive (it's a manual!), and it has both a sunroof and CD player (formerly my two main criteria when vehicle shopping). But oh how I also hate that car. It guzzles gas, chugs through motor oil like nobody's business and costs no less than $1000 to repair any time something minor breaks. My little Civic has nearly double the miles on the Jetta but has only required routine oil and tire changes and one new battery in the seven years I've have it. I don't even want to think about how much $$$ we've poured into the Jetta in the short 3 1/2 years it's been in our family for little aches and pains.

My sister-in-law (who grew up in Germany!) says that Germans don't have kids which explains why their car designs are useless (in my opinion) to growing families. There is literally only one infant car seat on the market that will fit in that car and it really only fits in the back middle seat (otherwise the driver has to drive with his/her chest against the wheel). With our second on the way, we need to be able to fit two kiddos in back, hence our quest for a new car. We plan to take things as they come but have a strong suspicion that our family will not stop at 4 members so we hit the car market with that in mind, hoping to find something that will last us a good 10 years.

And that, my friends, is why my new ride has striking similarities to a small bus. I took it out for a spin today and, as much as I hate to admit it, it was really kind of fun. I never knew pure luxury could come in the form of a minivan but I'm telling you, my new set of wheels has heated leather seats, a sunroof AND CD player, a DVD player (or DBD player as Isla calls it), sensors that tell me when I'm about to hit something, back windows that ROLL down, built-in sunshades on all the back windows and, get this: the radio tells me what song is playing (Graham's gonna fall off his rocker when I'm finally able to successfully name the artist/song title when he quizzes me!)

In case you aren't convinced and plan to de-friend us to avoid associating with the minivan types, let me close with a little quote from Popular Mechanics: "From a practical standpoint, minivans have all other sorts of family transportation covered. The vans are roomier than any crossover, more economical to operate than a full-size SUV, and far more readily adaptable to cargos of people or things than station wagons,” says Popular Mechanics.  “If every vehicle purchase was a purely rational decision, just about all of us would be driving minivans.”

That's all! :)