A lot of memories on those wheels

The final photos of our 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan, 4 days before it sold in August. We bought this our first minivan when Elizabeth was 5 months old, in 2003. Until this past year, it was a great car with no major problems. It has taken us on at least a dozen major road trips, plus countless commutes from Spanish Fork up to Provo/Orem. But with 145,000 miles, it was starting to become pretty expensive just to maintain. We replaced the AC compressor right before taking it on its final road trip (to California) in August, then decided to put it up for sale after we got back.



This is probably the cleanest it was since the day we bought it. Brent and I spent a couple of hours detailing every nook and cranny and trying to remove all the evidence of wear and tear from 5 kids!


Our Dodge sold pretty quickly, and the moment it did, we went crazy checking online ads for a newer Toyota Sienna. It took us a couple of weeks to find just what we wanted. What amazed us was how many dealers and private sellers tried to sell cars that had been wrecked and repaired (usually not well repaired at that). We were determined to avoid buying another car that had been in an accident after the dealer who sold us our Dodge minivan in 2003 passed it off as having a "clean Carfax report." That minivan had several problems with the exterior cracking, lights falling off, etc. We didn't realize it was accident damage until we had one of the side windows replaced (due to an ice chunk falling off a truck and hitting it on the highway). The glass company said that that window was after-market, as was that whole left rear section of the van!

Fortunately, we ended up finding the perfect van for our family. It is fairly new (2009), but has about 43,000 miles since it was a rental car in California. It has seating for eight, plus a deep cargo area in the back. An added bonus is that it doesn't creak with every turn of the steering wheel!