Yeah, I’m that kind of cool.
So last night, I brought home our new minivan, a 2001 Ford Windstar, in bright-effing-red of course. Aww yeah. Her name is Rebecca (but only if I never use the name around Nick).
She doesn’t look like this. Much.
Anyway, so we do this SCA thing, and in the summer we’re out to events almost every weekend with my poor little car is loaded to the rafters. And while she’s got a fair amount of storage space, considering the itsy-bitsyness of her… it’s just not enough. Especially for our form of “camping” which includes sleeping in something like this.
What it came down to … was more space.
So originally, we were looking to join the ranks of the station wagoneers. (Can I call them that? I’m going to call them that.) But when I mentioned this to my parents, they reminded me that they had a couple of extra vehicles lying around. My step-father, the worlds most fantastic mechanic (he fixes my vehicles, which makes him infinitely better than ANY OTHER MECHANIC EVER) likes to buy broken cars on Craigslist, fix them, and resell them at a profit. Or at least, that’s the idea. Thus far, it’s been more like “buy broken cars on Craigslist and alienate the neighbours by having no fewer than 4 cars, a camper trailer, and a bus in the driveway at any given time.” (You think I’m kidding — they actually have two buses, but the second one is stored offsite.)
So one of the vehicles Ken picked up was the aforementioned Rebecca the Red Van. She wasn’t running at the time, and I’m told that the problem was a rubber band. Well, a very specific, expensive rubber band, but a rubber band nevertheless. Which has, of course, been replaced, along with some other general “make her more awesome” type things (new tires!) and now Rebecca is stylin’.
Brought her home last night, and HOLY CRAP I’M SO TALL WOOO I COULD CRUSH YOU LIKE A BUG! A BUG!!! She also rides super smooth, and since my last … 4 vehicles, if you include the bikes, had a manual transmission, I tried very hard to stomp on the clutch and grasp uselessly for the stick shift. Right, minivan. Automatic. Ok.
So, got her home, and we decided to take the back row of seats out, and store it under our stairs. Holy CRAP there is a lot of space in there. Seriously, I could LIVE in this thing. And there’s definitely room for some good old fashioned minivan sex. The back windows are tinted VERY dark, so … aww yeah.
Other things that are awesome:
- SO MUCH SPACE. Seriously, I don’t know what I’m going to do with it all. Oh, fill it full of crap. Of course. (Kidding, honey!)
- Storage spots! Wow, I’ve got places to hide things that I didn’t know I needed. We hit up Safeway last night for our little “Stuff that lives in the van” kit, like sunscreen, bug spray, antihistamines, etc. This kit lives in the center console in the back seat (what would be the center row, if we hadn’t removed the back row.)
- Captains seats in the center row! Hence the center console there. Velly fancy. The dog will ride in style.
- Air conditioning! I haven’t had air conditioning in a vehicle I’ve owned since 2000, unless you count motorcycles. What? The air is perfectly well conditioned… and full of bugs.
- STEREO! My poor little car has no stereo. I’ve made do with shitty speakers plugged into my ipod, but now… now! Nick’s buying an ipod/car stereo hookup thingie today.
- Cigarette lighter plugs EVERYWHERE. We use these things a lot. We have a lot of devices that use them anyway, and an adapter to allow us to plug regular plugs into it. We can recharge our air pump with it, not to mention phones, ipods, etc. When the cigarette lighter in the car temporarily broke as we were driving out of town, we stopped in at my parents place to fix it rather than travel without it. I can think of 4 different plugs, and I haven’t even spent THAT much time crawling around it.
- Adjustable pedals. Hooray, I don’t have to sit so close to the steering wheel that the airbag will deploy directly into my nose!
- Did I mention how much space is in this thing? If it weren’t so nicely carpeted, I’d be expecting it to echo… echo… echo…
Things that need to be fixed:
- The hose for the windshield wiper fluid resevoir isn’t quite long enough, and doesn’t work. Oops. So if we get a bad bug splatter… well, get out and wash it off yourself. (Part of the car kit also includes: rags.)
- The gas indicator is inaccurate. To get it through aircare after replacing the battery, the van had to be … randomly driven around to get more data. So, Ken put $50 of gas in and drove around for a bit. That wasn’t enough. Mom then put $60 of gas in and drove more. (Finally went through and passed fine.) Except the gas indicator didn’t change throughout any of said gassing up. Hmm. Well, conveniently, I live next door to a gas station, so methinks we’ll just fill it up Every Time We Go Anywhere.
- I think the rear passenger door is wonky. I can’t open it from the inside, and the child locks aren’t on. Hmm. What is it with me and rear passenger doors?
- Generaly munge. Well, it is a 9 year old van, even if the last two years have been spent hanging out in my parents driveway. It’s got some … grime, to say the least. Must ungrime. Rebecca does not like grime.
Incidentally, this also means that within a few days, my little car will be for sale. I can’t afford to insure both of them for long, so the sooner I can get her out the door the better. I need to do a couple of little maintenance things (fix the spare tire, and maybe clean the two years worth of dust off the dash) but then she’s ready. Details for those interested (craigslist ad coming soon, once I wash her and get a picture):
’97 Chevrolet Cavalier, black, four door, manual transmission. No stereo or ABS. Engine runs great, no trouble whatsoever. Minor issue with the rear passenger door handle. E-brake doesn’t work (just park it in gear and no problem.) Second owner (first owner was a family member.) No accidents. Air Cared in March. 210,000km. Tires are a year old. Body is solid and in good shape, but rather unattractive (scratches, dings, etc) — she is 13 yrs old, after all. When I was 13, my body started going through some weird changes too. $500 firm. For the car, not my 13 yr old self. Note that similar cars go for $1000-2600 on Craigslist, but I got a good deal on it when I bought it and I’m passing that along. (Making a profit would seem weird.)
I should probably edit that before I put it on Craigslist. But honestly, that car has been SO little trouble it’s unreal. The only problems I’ve ever had with it (in the two years I’ve owned it) is that I’m apparently a nail magnet, which is why the tires are all new. Theoretically my curse with flat tires would not be transferred to the new owner, but just in case it is, it has a full size spare.
Wanna buy my car? You know you do!
I’m interested. I need to check on insurance costs, compare to my current rental/Co-Op bills, and discuss with the hubby. I’ll give you a firmer expression or retraction of interest tomorrow.
Yay for Rebecca! :-)
Alternative to fuel gauge; reset the trip odometer every time you fill. Find out from online what the expected mileage is. Bingo: fairly reliable gauge. :)
Since my bike doesn’t have a gauge on it – i use this method so i’m not constantly switching to reserve. :)
Clamb: I used to do that with my old bike, but it’s a lot easier when there’s only one driver and you’re sure you remembered to reset it. (I’m STILL in the habit of resetting the tripmeter every time I fill up… but Nick isn’t.)
Also, the tripmeter & odometer are on the same gauge, you have to tell it specifically when you want the tripmeter. Damnit.
For now, I think we’ll stick with filling it up every time we go out. For one, it’s a handy way of finding out exactly how much trips are costing us. :)