those darn foreign cars!

My foreign-made, minivan has 191,000 miles on it and is still going strong.

We bought it six years ago for just $4,500.

It has been making some weird noises lately...so we took it to our mechanic today (awesome guy by the way if you ever need a great mechanic). I was sooo hopeful that this was my chance to finally justify getting a newer vehicle. I wasn't sure how much work it would need done on it, but Sweet Hubby & I decided that if it needed $800 or more worth of work, then we would seriously consider calling it good and getting me something newer to drive. (we picked $800 since that's basically 1/3 of what the van is probably worth at this point). So, as you can guess, I was hoping that Steve (mechanic) would call me and tell me that the total repair costs would be $1,200 or something like that. No such luck!

It only needs $450 worth of work done to it and Steve is confident that this will fix the problems and I will be able to continue to drive it for many more miles – he was excited about that. I, on the other hand, was not completely sharing in his excitement. In a way, I was hoping that it would be more than our $800 limit...as I would really love to have a newer, nicer van. I don't need a lot, as I don’t like spending money on vehicles, BUT I often wonder what it would be like to drive a vehicle that was made sometime in the past decade! :)

We buy foreign vehicles because they tend to be more mechanically sound and typically last for a long time and don’t give you a lot of headaches in repairs. I think that's great/awesome/wonderful/fabulous – for everyone else on the road putting along in an older, foreign vehicle. Way to go for them for being frugal! But when I'm the one that is driving the 15-year old van that never has any major problems of any magnitude, it’s different. (tee hee)

• What is it like to have CUP HOLDERS?
• What is it like to have a van with DOUBLE sliding doors?
• When will I get to put on my OWN seatbelt? (I have the dangerous automatic sliding kind…the kind that will catch you off-guard if you try to get out of your seat before they are finished gliding to the other side of the door – and they squeak and rattle as they are gliding along their track (they are so loud)! Thank you, Steve for oiling them today…I will still have automatic seatbelts when I pick my van up this afternoon, but at least they won’t be noisy automatic seatbelts that rattle).

I’ve never owned a car that is newer than 9 years old, at date of purchase. But - I'm sure when I finally do – it will be a great day to rejoice! Repair costs have to justify me to spend the money and replace it…so I guess 2008 wasn’t my year to get a new(er) van. And, if I had to be honest, for that, I am thankful (that is my practical side speaking).