Adventures in vehicle shopping

We have been vehicle shopping... slowly.

Not being in a hurry and waiting for a deal to come along generally pays off. Also we have limited funds. That tends to make someone more patient.

I have been going online to look at our local and semi-local car dealerships to check out their inventory and see if they have what we are looking for. We knew we wanted a minivan, newer than 2002, preferably with quad seating and a CD player.

While looking online, we spent most of our time searching the lots with the best reputations. The place with the very best reputation in our area is in a tiny little town and a 20 minute drive to get there. They did have a couple that looked promising online so we headed down last weekend. The one they had sold, and the other was out on a service call.

Shucks. Call us when it comes back.

We talked to him about what we could do for trade and have been looking yet, but haven't found much. He thought the van would be back Tues. Tuesday came, and the vehicle hadn't made it back to the shop yet so he said he would give us a call.

So then comes the call today. And it's a good day, we have time to test drive it. But it was not meant to be. They can't find it.

The van is gone.

They have the title. He's asked all those who work there (he is one of the owners). No one knows what happened to it. They are embarrassed and wondering if it was stolen.

And that left us looking again.

We did find one at a huge bargain at a different dealership. 2003 Kia Sedona. Quad seating, CD player, leather seats, even a sun roof. Now I can pretend I'm cool and have a convertible as I drive my minivan.