We finally replaced our red Town and Country mini van.
We bought the 2005 red Chrysler in mid 2008 after my (formerly my dad's) Toyota Camry was t-boned by a guy in a truck who missed a stop sign. The car was a total loss and the insurance claim paid for the van in full. At the time we were convinced that owning the van was going to be temporary; a quick fix for a road trip to Florida before I deployed to Iraq. The van had plenty of room for a small family that travels
with diapers, a portable crib, toys, clothes, etc. And it had the great
equalizer for a road trip - a DVD player! Worth it's weight in gold, that DVD player kept the, "Are we there yets?" to a minimum although I have heard (not seen) "The Incredibles" over twenty seven times but have only seen it two or three.
We bought the three year old van with 80,000 miles on it. There was no way we were going to keep it forever - right? The plan was to sell it on Craig's List before Christmas 2008.
We didn't keep it forever, but we did keep it for another 97,000 miles. We kept it through one infant then another - plus a teenager. We kept it through a bear attack (okay, it just ran into the side of it) and a front end collision. We kept it through three sets of tires, countless oil changes, a new battery and one total replacement of the coolant system. We kept it through at least six or seven road trips to Florida and an untold number of trips to Camp.
In the end the coolant leaked, the driver's side window wouldn't go down, and one automatic door wouldn't open but that van owes us nothing. It was reliable and got us to where we need to go safely and we are sad to see it go.
Of course, we replaced it with another Chrysler Town and Country...with a DVD player.
We bought the 2005 red Chrysler in mid 2008 after my (formerly my dad's) Toyota Camry was t-boned by a guy in a truck who missed a stop sign. The car was a total loss and the insurance claim paid for the van in full. At the time we were convinced that owning the van was going to be temporary; a quick fix for a road trip to Florida before I deployed to Iraq. The van had plenty of room for a small family that travels
with diapers, a portable crib, toys, clothes, etc. And it had the great
equalizer for a road trip - a DVD player! Worth it's weight in gold, that DVD player kept the, "Are we there yets?" to a minimum although I have heard (not seen) "The Incredibles" over twenty seven times but have only seen it two or three. We bought the three year old van with 80,000 miles on it. There was no way we were going to keep it forever - right? The plan was to sell it on Craig's List before Christmas 2008.
We didn't keep it forever, but we did keep it for another 97,000 miles. We kept it through one infant then another - plus a teenager. We kept it through a bear attack (okay, it just ran into the side of it) and a front end collision. We kept it through three sets of tires, countless oil changes, a new battery and one total replacement of the coolant system. We kept it through at least six or seven road trips to Florida and an untold number of trips to Camp. In the end the coolant leaked, the driver's side window wouldn't go down, and one automatic door wouldn't open but that van owes us nothing. It was reliable and got us to where we need to go safely and we are sad to see it go.
Of course, we replaced it with another Chrysler Town and Country...with a DVD player.
