"Well we're suburban owners"

We've been driving this mini-van for 7 years. SEVEN YEARS. I think that's a record for us! Josh seems to want different vehicles every 5 years, or sometimes even less. It's been a good car for us: very reliable with minimal issues, and we've especially loved the stow-and-go storage it offers. But we were never fans of the automatic doors--and now that the boys are getting older, we don't need sliding doors anymore.

We've been thinking about getting a new family vehicle for at least 2 years now, but I kept putting it off. I thought that we should drive the van until it died, but Josh disagreed--he thought we should trade it in while there was still any value to it. He's been checking out suburbans for a while, and has been wanting one, but I wasn't interested in a big suburban. I remember riding in suburbans when I was a kid, and I hated that you always had to push up the middle row seat in order to get to the back seat. I remember them being large and bulky, and I wasn't interested in getting one. I kept trying to convince Josh to wait it out and not get a different vehicle, and he kept trying to convince me that a suburban was the right vehicle to get for our growing boys.

When we went to Utah over Thanksgiving Break, we went and test drove a couple suburbans. One was in Logan, and we went there together on Black Friday. The suburban was listed at an affordable low price, because there was some paint damage on the exterior. I drove it and actually liked it: it didn't feel larger than the van to drive, and I was thinking I might actually be convinced to get one. Then we went in to talk numbers, and the dealership was only going to offer us a $500 trade in for the van. Josh had booked it, and it low-booked at $3,000, so we laughed at them and told them no way! I was thinking maybe that would convince Josh that we needed to keep the van until it died after all, because obviously we weren't going to get anywhere near what it was worth, but he thought another dealership would give us a better trade-in.

So that night, he took me to a dealership in Layton to drive another suburban that he found online for a great price. We didn't like this suburban as much as the first one, and as we were test driving it, we decided we weren't interested in purchasing it. The heated seats didn't work right, and the transmission shifting didn't feel smooth. One bonus, however, was that this suburban had a sun roof, and I've never driven a car with one before. I was so excited when I saw it and couldn't wait to open it and stick my head out as we drove. I pushed the button that slides it open, and unfortunately, the mechanism made a weird noise when it was completely open. No matter how much I tried different options, it wouldn't shut.  I've never broken a car while driving before!!! I thought it was a hilarious situation, but Josh thought otherwise: he was irritated with me (it wasn't my fault it broke, though!). It was embarrassing to return back to the lot and tell the salesman that the car was broken and the sunroof wouldn't close! He still tried to sell it to us, though, and he offered us the same trade-in value as the other dealership: $500. We politely declined and left. I was hoping that after being told the same thing by 2 dealerships that Josh would be convinced that I was right, and to just keep the van. 

See those power lines over Josh's head?
I was laughing so hard at this point, but test-driving
a vehicle with a broken sun roof on a
cold December evening didn't make him very happy!!

However, I was wrong. The Monday after Thanksgiving, he drove down to Rexburg to test drive another suburban while I was at work, and in the middle of the day, I got a text from him that said "Well were suburban owners". And I wasn't even surprised. It's not the first time Josh has gotten a car without me seeing it (or in one prior case, even knowing about it!), but it was the first time I've ever been texted that it's happened in my absence! He didn't trade in the van, though. Instead, he drove the van home, cleaned it up really nice, fixed a few small things, and listed it for sale for $2500. Within a week, it was sold (for just a little less than the asking price). I went with Josh to pick up our new suburban (which, by the way, is even older than the van!) a few days later on the way home from my Grandma Rose's funeral. I dropped him off at the dealership where it was, and he drove it home as I drove the rest of the way in the silver box car.

Ultimately, Josh won this battle; it didn't take long for me to warm up to the fact that we are now suburban owners. In fact, I am quite fond of it. We took it to Utah over Christmas break, and we all fit comfortably inside with all our bags, ski/snowboard equipment, and gifts. We like the leather seats (although I sincerely wished it had heated ones), we like that it includes a DVD player (after we figured out how the sound comes through the radio), and I like that it's not too tall to get in/out of. Also, Josh doesn't have to worry about the vehicle affecting his manly ego anymore, since driving a suburban is much cooler than driving a mini van (Ammon likes it for the same reason)!