As we have blabbed to anyone who will listen, our Honda Odyssey we had when we lived in the States was the best car ever. It had so many nice things that we liked, and we haven’t been able to find the equivalent.
Well, we just got ourselves a whole lot closer to what we had. It’s not exactly the same, and it has a few more bells and whistles that we probably don’t need, and the driver and passenger door are much more chunky, and there’s woodgrain throughout (yuck), but it has plenty of the nice things we really liked, and which the Volvo simply cannot provide. With the arrival of Rocky, the Volvo suddenly felt much more cramped (to me anyway), so I became adamant that we needed to swap to something else.
1) We like the siliding doors since that prevents the kids from opening their doors onto other cars. We also like the fact that usually the sliding doors are remote.
2) We like leather seats. The Volvo had this, true, but we also like the ability to recline the seats. That the Volvo did not do at all, only the front two, but nothing for the 2nd and 3rd rows.
3) Adjustable height seatbelts. Probably sounds minor, but it’s nice to have when the seatbelt is not hitting your shoulder in the right place.
4) Folding seats. The Volvo folded down flat in the back and this was good. The new car, all of the seats fold down, to create a large bay which would probably accomodate 2 full size couches.
5) Tow bar. The Volvo has a weak transmission, and because of this, it’s not a good idea to tow anything with it. Now that we have a tow bar on our new car, we’ll eventually get a trailer, and anything else we can stick on there, like a bike rack.
Need less to say I am super excited about our new car, even if it screams “soccer mom” I don’t care. I was reading recently in the book ‘All Marketers are Liars’, Seth Godin says the minivan is a very good practical car, despite the stigma that many people have associated with it – and I agree. And my Uncle Mike would agree. I remember being surprised by his choice of vehicle when he visited our family in 1992 driving a simple Dodge Caravan, and he was only a single guy (still is).
So there’s the picture. It’s a Chrysler Grand Voyager Limited.
In Australia this car is classed as a luxury car, and as such, if we bought this baby new, it would be an extra $1,000 in tax since only rich people would buy it, and another grand wouldn’t make any difference to them. Interesting side note, they now only import the diesel version as of 2010. This one is a 2008 back when you could still get a V6 and this car is a V6. Again, it does have a few bells and whistles that we probably don’t need, like automatic folding rear seats, DVD players for 2nd and 3rd row, cordless headphones, window shades for all the back windows, sunroof, self adjusting suspension for towing, alloy wheels, and the list goes on.
Here’s the strange bit though. We’ve bought this car privately (a little nerve racking, since you never really know who you’re dealing with) and it’s been quite a process to get the loan (not too bad really and a good interest rate thanks to some very nice people at the Credit Union) and then a process to get the money to the right place with the other family. As of right now, their lending company has not released the car, so the owner agreed to drive it here, but didn’t leave the keys. He’ll send the keys when the lending company gives the a-ok. Why wasn’t the check made out to the lending company in the first place? That’s a very good question. Strangely enough, when the CU did the title search, it came up as no encumberances, i.e. the lending company didn’t come up as the lien holder, so the check was made out to the seller only.
Whew what a hassle. But it’s only a few more days.
Then we get to be the seller. Anyone want a well cared for Volvo XC90??
Can I just cop a whinge for a second, about the carbon price? It’s a big deal at the moment in Australia, now that it is starting to look like a reality.
Written by Toby
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