Well we did it….we bought a minivan. And I’m driving it. I would love to tell you I’m thrilled with it, but that wouldn’t quite be the truth….and no, Tom didn’t make me buy a minivan, this was really probably more my decision than his and I know it was a good decision but that doesn’t mean I’m thrilled about it. 
I LOVED my Hyundai Veracruz, seriously loved.it. And for 2 kids, it was perfect. We had the third row seat, so we could fold it down and haul more people or fold it up and have lots of room for strollers, pack n play, luggage, groceries and whatever else we might need to drag with us. BUT, for 3 kiddos (especially 3 in carseats), it just wasn’t going to work. We would need to use the 3rd row seat, which posed two problems, (1) it is nearly impossible to crawl into the 3rd row with two carseats in the middle row because you can’t fold the middle seat forward with a carseat in it and (2) with the 3rd row seat in use, we have almost no “trunk” space…we could fit the pack n play and maybe one small suitcase, but certainly not all the stuff we need to travel as a family of 5 (i.e. stroller, pack n play, and seventeen bags).
In my car hunt, I have literally looked at EVERY type of SUV under the sun trying to avoid a mini-van purchase, but I quickly figured out that our options were basically suburban or minivan (I insisted on having 3rd row seat + the ability to hold lots of luggage). And that’s where the dilemma started…..
You see, a couple years ago Tom and I were part of a small group that went through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. (Side note and shameless plug for Dave: We LOVED it!! If you get the chance to go through this, take it!!) One of the things Dave Ramsey really pushes is getting rid debt and then staying out of debt….for Tom and I this meant paying of LOTS of student loans, but we also decided that it meant no car loans. At the time we were both driving paid for cars (thank you to both of our parents for that, we were both still driving our college cars), and we decided that it was important to us to avoid car debt in the future. Before you start thinking I’m going to get on my soap box and tell you car loans are the devil and you’re a terrible person if you have one, that’s not my intent at all!! Please please don’t think that’s my point…..truthfully, I don’t see this as being a right/wrong issue….it’s a matter of what works for you and this is what works for us. Since we went through FPU, we’ve upgraded both our cars…we bought our Hyundai Veracruz in the summer of 2009, found a great deal on Craigslist and paid cash. Then last summer, we sold my old Saturn and bought Tom a pickup. Honestly, I love not having to think about car loans –I do all the bill paying around here, and I love that I don’t ever have to think about that particular bill. But, when the suburban vs. minivan debate started, it became clear very quickly that a suburban was out of the question if we were going to pay cash….that is unless I was going to drive a 1986 suburban, which wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. Long story short, we’re driving a minivan. Correction, I’m driving a minivan. But on a high note –we “upgraded” to heated leather seats AND a dvd player, and I’m not going to lie, I heated my buns all the way home from the dealership tonight and I’m really looking forward to letting the kids watch movies on our 12+ hour drive to Austin. Our babysitter told me a couple months ago, you’ll fall in love with the inside and you just have to get over the outside look of a minivan ….I’m thinking this is going to be very true! The heated seat….love at first try!
One other high note –we’ve known all along that we got a steal on our Veracruz when we bought it, but that was reinforced tonight when I got MORE for a trade in than what we paid for it 2 1/2 years (and 45,000 miles) ago. That makes the pain of getting rid of it a little more bearable! So, here’s to driving a paid for minivan!
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