Kiss the Mini-van Goodbye!

This post was written by Mary's husband, Keith, aka: Daddy.

In 1996 (or was it 1995?), we got a cheap minivan, used, from a State of South Dakota auction.  Light blue, with essentially no features beyond a radio and some AC.  You could remove the seats, and those damn things weighed a ton, but we had room!  We ran the hell out of it.

In 2000, we bought another used van, but this one was wrecked. 

'97 Dodge Grand Caravan...

  My brother Ward did most of the work while I stood around looking pretty much useless.  All in all, the red Dodge Grand Caravan was really an excellent vehicle for us.   We put about 190,000 miles on that thing... and it just chugged along.  Here it is on a trip to Wyoming, camping south of Jackson Hole...

A wonderful family camping trip to Wyoming. This was in 2005-- Mary was pregnant and didn't know it. :)

Heh... that picture almost looks like it could be from a Dodge advertising campaign.  The Grand finale for that van came in 2007.  We sold it to a television producer, and it got used in a lame "reality" tv show.  Couples had to drive it through an obstacle course-- with the driver blindfolded.  The last time we saw it was on TV... :)

So that brings us to 2007.  That was the year, in July, that we bought a Brand New Van.  That Dodge had run so well for us, and had held up so beautifully, that we bought a Chrysler Town & Country.  Wow... stepping up in the world! Right after we bought that, of course, we road-tripped to Grandma's house in Wyoming...

Little Gracie after a long trip. Meeteetse Wyoming in July of 2007

Where the Dodge was great, the Chrysler was not.  But it was NEW and we would not realize how poorly engineered this vehicle was for a few years.  There were minor "annoyances", like map lights that stopped working even though they had good bulbs and fuses.  There were larger annoyances, like the power sliding door mechanism that died 3 times because the design of the wiring cable that feeds power to the door was just horribly done.  There were Major "annoyances", like transmission work and oil leaks from nearly every gasket in that engine.  What the hell?  Chrysler probably should have just gone bankrupt and shut their doors.  That van has to go.... but what do we buy now?  We've had minivans for 16 or 17 years.

Well, 2 years prior to buying that brand new van, I bought a truck.  My awesome little Nissan Frontier.  We bought that truck in August of 2005.

My '05 Frontier. Shot taken in June of 2012.

Here it is in June of 2012, still lookin' great.  In fact, it IS a really great truck-- best vehicle I have EVER owned.  Over 101,000 miles on it now, and I have not had to do ONE single thing.  The only "annoyance" thing was my own fault-- I froze the windshield washer tank when I took it hunting-- so it leaks now.  But consider this.  That truck went 92,000 miles on TWO of the original tires.  I STILL have not changed brake pads on it!  When I had tires put on-- I asked them to evaluate the pads, and they said I probably have another 10 to 15 thousand miles of wear on them.  They couldn't believe I had NEVER serviced the brakes....and I still haven't

So... the search for a van replacement began, and it was heavily influenced by my experience with my truck, as well as the fact that my daughter Katie bought a Prius and gets incredible gas mileage.  Mary was tired of filling the 20 gallon tank after only driving 320~350 miles.  Yeah... 17 mpg running around town.  Booooo.  Perhaps it was time for a CAR instead of a van...

and that's what we did.  We looked at Hyundai Sonata, Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, VW Passat (TDi), and the new Nissan Altima.  The Altima has the same 2.5 liter - 4 cylinder engine as my truck.  It is paired to a newly-engineered CVT transmission, and the whole package is rated at 38mpg highway and 27 city.

Just before driving off the lot, December 1, 2012.

So... we bought a 2013 Nissan Altima. :)  If it is only half as good as the Frontier, we will have made an excellent purchase!