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Thursday, December 28, 2006

Car Shopping

I need some help. We went car shopping today. We're trading in our minivan. It's been crapping out on us too much lately and we're ready to ditch it. It hasn't been anything too major...just annoying. We're ready to upgrade.

We went to three different dealerships tonight and we are going to head out again tomorrow. We'll probably buy something tomorrow or Saturday. I told Carl I'd blog about what we've seen so far so I can get the opinions of all of my intelligent blog readers. Here are the three choices we have so far...
1. 2002 Isuzu Trooper. 65K miles. $400 under our soft "limit".
  • Silver
  • No cd player but can be added
  • 4WD
  • LOTS of cargo space
  • "cool" factor---not a minivan (although, I don't mind driving a minivan at all!)

2. 2001 Chrysler Town & Country. 60K miles. $3000 above our soft "limit"
  • Limited edition. Lots of bells and whistles--seat warmers, 4 disc changer, leather interior
  • No stow and go seats
  • Gold color
  • Automatic doors and trunk
3. 2005 Chrysler Town & Country. 103K. $500 lower than our soft "limit"
  • Basic edition--nothing too fancy.
  • Hunter green
  • Stow and go seats.
  • Cloth interior


I haven't really been considering the Trooper too much. My main dilemma has been with the vans. The 2005 has a lot of miles (it was a business van before) but it was well taken care of. The stow and go seats are really appealing to me. The 2001 doesn't have the stow and go seats. They are the same that we have now. All of the extra little things really appeal to me. I love the cd changer, automatic doors, leather. I know they aren't worth the extra $3K but the low mileage might be.

Comments are open. Discuss.

8 comments:

  1. You know we have a 2003 T&C. It also has lots of bells and whistles that are total bonuses, not all required. Leather seats, heated seats, automatic doors, multiple CD changer (I don't even know how many!)DVD player, etc. It also does not have stow and go. That would probably be really nice, but I don't know how often we would really use it at this point. You can fold the seats down to fit larger items in it which is how we hauled Logan's mattresses.

    If you like the more expensive one, will you be making payments still? Calculate how much more that $3000 really adds to your monthly payment. It might not be that big of a deal.Good luck! I love my van so far!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think you should get the expensive one. Especially if you plan to drive to Oklahoma and other places often. You need something that you're going to like. Plus, those extra miles on the other one make me nervous. Can you talk the dealer down on the expensive one?

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  3. Anonymous9:11 AM

    I would go with the Trooper. $$ are right, Mileage is good, you have cargo space.
    Is the gas mileage the same as the Vans?
    Mom

    ReplyDelete
  4. mom- the gas mileage is the same as the vans.

    Kerry- we're going to try to not be making payments at all so that $3K extra would make payments a necessity.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm with your mom. Go with the Trooper. The 103k miles is a lot and the Trooper could be yours without payments. However, how easy is it to get the kids in and out of the Trooper as opposed to a mini-van?

    It's kinda funny because I'm watching Dwain and Andrea's kids right now because they are out potentially buying a mini-van (if all goes well)!

    ReplyDelete
  6. You know me, I'm not a minivan kinda girl. I say Trooper. Good Luck.

    Oh, and I accidentally called your phone the other day trying to get my sister-in-law. Her name is Chris and she is right next to Christy on my phone.jlggtspb

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous7:04 PM

    I like #2. The extras actually make road trips more bearable. The leather seats are great and easy to clean. The low mileage is a must if you plan on keeping it a while.

    You might also want to check the safety ratings of the vehicles and current blue book values. The library keeps old issues of Consumer Reports for looking up car ratings.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jason wants me to tell you that you should be getting a hummer.

    ReplyDelete