Mama has a new toy

We have way too many vehicles at our farm. Jay has 2 Chevy diesel pickups (he is planning to sell one, but hasn't as of yet) & 1 work van that holds all his tools. He also has his triumph convertible, plus all his farm implements. As a family we have our GMC Safari, and I have my chevy cavalier. Each of the kids also has their own car. We look like a used car lot around here!

This past year, Ashley & Chelsea have hardly ridden anywhere with us, which is normally the only time we use the van (all 5 can fit in my car, but it's a good thing all 3 kids are skinny). Yes, we could use one of Jays pickups because they both hold 6 people, but if you have ever climbed into a truck that has had work boots in it that were covered in pig poop, you'd know why that's not even an option.

We have talked about selling Safari, but this past winter I actually drove it most of the time because I liked sitting up higher when the roads weren't perfect. It made it easier to see what was going on, which made me feel safer. So, then we talked about getting rid of the car and just keeping the van. But, we don't need a vehicle that seats 8, when next year there will only be 3 at home. So we have been looking, researching, comparing different vehicles and decided we wanted a crossover SUV. We have spend a few months trying to decide which one. I even made a spreadsheet on the computer (yes, I know I'm a spreadsheet geek LOL) that listed price, mileage, and different options so I could see a side by side comparison.

This morning we decided to head to Des Moines to check them out and maybe do some test drives. We were only going to look, with no intention of buying today. We just wanted more information to process and to help in our decision making.

We looked at a couple of vehicles, but they didn't get much, if any, better mileage than our Safari. I wanted to trade up. If I'm going to trade, it's not going to be for something worse. We were also frustrated by the lack of interest we seemed to get from the salesmen. I for one hate to be talked down to, and most of the salesmen only talked to Jay. If I asked a question, they would look at Jay to give the answers. Grrrrr!

We decided to leave and head home. Before we left, Jay said "You know there is a guy that we play basketball with who said he has a Saturn Vue and he loves it." I had never even heard of those, and we figured that while in Des Moines, why not check it out.

When we walked around the lot I saw one that called to me...honest, it did! We took it for a test drive and I was in love. I don't really get too excited about vehicles, but I did about this one. It was smaller (seats 5), but sat up higher, and that's what I wanted. And we were so impressed with how smooth of a ride it has.

I cannot say enough nice things about the Saturn salesmen, manager, and finance manager that we dealt with. They were all super friendly, and were constantly asking if we wanted anything to drink or eat (they brought Austin 2 bags of popcorn LOL). They answered every question we had, and they looked at ME when answering my questions....what a wonderful change!

The nice part also about Saturn is they have a no haggle price. What price you see, is what you get. To find out your trade value, they go online and everyone gets the same blue book price as the next guy who has a vehicle just like you. No luring us in with great deals only to find out that the many rebates promised are not ones we even qualify for.

When talking to the finance man, I noticed he was listening to a Christian radio station, which I was impressed by (a lot of people won't do that in public for fear of crticism or offending someone) I commented on the picture of a little girl on his desk, which was his daughter. She is so adorable and he said she is his princess and she's growing way too fast. The next thing you know, he and Jay & I are talking about our children and how hard it is to keep them on the right path in this crazy world and how you find yourself praying more than you would ever believe. We spent probably a half an hour visiting with him. He was so genuine and funny. A true family man. We found that the 4 main people we dealt with have all worked together for over 8 years, which I find impressive in that industry which seems to change employees regularly.

Ok, so now that my commercial for Saturn is over, so yes, we did end up buying the vehicle here's a picture of my new toy - a 2008 Saturn Vue:

This post was edited to add a better picture. :)