Never been much of a “car guy”, I have absolutely no problem driving a minivan. I never really thought of it as “losing my manhood” or being a stereotype. I never had a need for a vehicle that big, and in fact I was intimidated by anything larger than a car. That stemmed from the fact that the day I got my learner’s permit, my dad insisted I drive home, in his pickup. I had been training in a car, and the truck just felt so…big, and high off the ground…I didn’t like it one bit, so I never really wanted anything bigger than a car. Then many years later, my wife and I, a couple years before we had our son, went to Boston on vacation, and we rented a mid-size car. When we got to the rental place, they had to give us a 2 or 3 size upgrade because they didn’t have any other vehicles…and we got a minivan. I was really actually upset about it, I was afraid of driving this huge thing in unfamiliar territory, but I absolutely loved having the room for our stuff and ourselves…and it handled like a car….I decided, even before really contemplating parenthood, that I’d like to get one of those.
Then a couple years later, we had the kid on the way, and we were ready to get a new vehicle, so I started to research them. We went with safety and longterm reliability, and decided to get a Honda Odyssey. Only problem with those was that at the time (2001), they were HIGHLY in demand. They ran nearly $30k new (and I couldn’t afford that), and only lost about $1,000 in value for every year. So, I wanted a 1999, but if you could even FIND one used, it would have been something like $26k for a 2 year old vehicle, and that still was outside my price range.
So, we took a risk…I bought one on eBay from a guy in Montreal. Because the deal was that in Canada (where the vehicles are made), the sticker price in Canadian $ was not much more than the sticker price in the US in US $, but the exchange rate at the time was like 70 cents on the dollar. And this guy bought them at auctions, off lease, and was able to sell them for thousands less than I could get them in the states. And even if I had wanted to go new, by the way, there was a waiting list, no one discounted, and as soon as a used one appeared in my area, it was gone. So, I decided to give this a try. The vehicle which would have cost me about $26k, I got for $17.5k. Now I had to pay $700 to have it delivered, AND it took 3 weeks to get it, but with NAFTA, the only taxes I paid were sales taxes at the time I brought it in to register and license it.
In 2005, it got totalled, and by then the market had relaxed quite a bit. I got about $10k in insurance on it, and I found one which had about the same # of miles, same model year, but actually a level up for exactly what I got back from insurance…this one from a local private party.
Now my son is 7 though and he’d just as soon ride in the backseat of my car, so in a couple years when we finally replace it, we’re getting a regular car, most likely a hybrid…again, not a “manly” car, but I really don’t give a rats ass….it works for me.
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