Joined the minivan club!

After Charlie took his Explorer to get an oil change we realized our minivan was in our future sooner than we thought. His poor Explorer is leaking fluid from about every orifice possible! Of course the mechanic thought its life expectancy was pretty bleak, and after the quote of $1800 to fix...off we went to find a new ride.

The result...
A 2008 Nissan Quest

This is the van we had planned on getting after doing some pre-shopping and research at the auto show this spring. It payed off to wait until now rather than getting it this spring - of course after looking at new vehicles at the auto show it was tempting to buy then. The rebate and financing were much better now than before.

After having a black vehicle that shows every ding and dust particle possible, the silver should be much more forgiving! It's a pretty basic van, not too many bells and whistles. The one feature I hadn't planned on getting was the DVD system, but I guess you have to special order one without the DVD system, CJ was thrilled!

It's funny, with more room than my Accord you would think the storage options would be better, but it doesn't have enough accessible storage from the drivers seat. I'll miss my center console and extra cup holders! But after a trip to Target for a bin for under the center tray and some seat protectors for the car seats (no more leather) - I think we're set. CJ proclaimed while getting ready for bed, "Mom, I love the new van." He already made me promise he could play in it when he gets up tomorrow morning!

We'll have to hang the tennis ball from the garage ceiling though, pulling it in gives only inches to spare to get it to fit. After driving my Accord into the freezer one too many times (no wonder it didn't work anymore!) it will take a little maneuvering to fit.

Oh yeah, for those of you wondering...wasn't she supposed to be at work? I was on-call this evening.