New Car

I hate to spend money on cars. I don't really know why - I just hate it. Therefore, we rarely purchase new cars and when we do, they are always used. Even my "new" Audi was pre-owned.

For the last 6 years we have been driving the family around in a 2000 Plymouth Grand Voyager minivan. Affectionately named "Old Betsey." We purchased it in 2001 with about 20K miles. Since that time, we have had 2 more kids and put over 100,000 miles on that van. Old Betsey has made numerous trips across the country from California to Kansas, California to Missouri, Kansas to Texas, Texas to Missouri, etc. Old Betsey has taken us to about 1237 kid's activities (e.g. baseball games, basketball games, gymnastics, art class, piano lessons and swimming), late night Taco Bell runs and trips to church. The kids have eaten 623 chicken nuggets, 127 cheeseburgers, 52 foot long chili dogs and have drank approximately 2568 cokes and other assorted beverages in Old Betsey. Old Betsey has been fairly reliable until the last couple of years. We had a few mechanical problems including a costly transmission repair. In addition, last summer I had the air conditioning fixed - twice! After 3 trips to the dealership and over $1,000 later, the air conditioning still was not fixed. By this time it was winter and we did not care. However, when summer came around this year, I knew it was just a matter of time before we had to either get the AC fixed, or (dare I say it) buy a new car. As you know, it is hot in Texas. Seriously hot. Misty and the kids were making it in the van without the AC. But when the temperature hit 100 degrees and Misty was running the kids to 7 activities a day, the Helms family had had enough. Misty told me that we needed to do something and that she was not driving back to Windsor on July 4th without AC. I understood. Given that we were not all fitting into the Saturn, it was time to make a decision.

After considering our options, we decided to buy a new vehicle. We started by looking at new minivans. To our surprise, not much had changed. No cool features, technology, styling or others features have been added to persuade potential car buyer to consider the minivan. It seems that minivans have not changed much in the past 8 years. However, the landscape for large SUVs (Ford Expedition, Chevy Suburban, Nissan Armada and their higher-end counterparts Lincoln Navigator, Cadillac Escalade and Infinity Q56) was amazing. Tons of room, tons of features and a great ride. I know - they are gas guzzling, socially irresponsible machines. But man they are cool. After we started looking, we were hooked.

We landed on a 2007 Chevy Suburban LTZ with all the toys (moon/sunroof, navigation, DVD entertainment with 2 screens, chrome package, etc.). I think we got a good deal, but man it was expensive.

I will stop now and say we have NEVER spent anywhere near this much money on a vehicle. In fact, this vehicle cost almost double what we paid for our next most expensive vehicle. However, given the amount of time Misty and the kids spend in the car, it seems like a good investment. I think.

We have had it for about 36 hours and I really like it. Brittany has figured out just about everything with the navigation and stereo. Misty is a little apprehensive about driving it around and parking it in our garage. She will get over that. We both really like it.

The kids like it as well. They wanted to sleep in it last night. I thought that was a cute idea, but did not let them do it. I am hopeful that they like it enough to take some responsibility in their actions and take good care of it. At least for a couple months. We have already discussed rules like no eating and no climbing on the seats. Who knows how long it will last, but I am hopeful that our family will have a nice vehicle to drive for a few years.