We sadly had to say good-bye to our Honda Odyssey that we have had for 8 1/2 years. It was a great car and I loved driving it. It took us to Utah more times than I can count, 5 Ragnars, High Adventure and Youth Trips, a trip to Arizona and several to Disneyland, tons of driving for Volleyball and Cross Country, and tons of trips to school and back. The last year we've had a few problems with it, but were hoping it would last us until Parker graduated from High School (in 1 1/2 years). It only had 135,000 miles on it, which in Honda years is not that much!
It had been burning a lot of oil lately, but other than that, we really hadn't had any problems with it lately. Trav drove it to Vegas in November for Ragnar, we drove it to Disneyland in November as well. Then, in December, we drove it to Utah. When we were in Utah the check engine light came on and the CD player wouldn't work. The check engine light has happened before, so we didn't really worry about it too much. We just figured out that it would cycle back off on our drive home. On Saturday as we were driving home, we did great until we hit Sparks. We stopped for gas in Sparks and got back on the freeway. Travis never pulled into the fast lane (which was weird) and then he got off the freeway in Boomtown. I asked him what was going on as he was pulling off and he said we were having some car issues. We stopped at a gas station and he checked the oil and it was super low again. So, we bought oil, put it in, and headed on our way. As we were pulling out of the gas station the van was making a horrible noise and was having a hard time accelerating. We pulled over, turned the car off and started it again and it seemed better. We kept on driving (since it seemed to be driving fine) and hoped for the best. When we stopped at the agricultural check coming in to California, we had the problem again. It wouldn't accelerate, it started shaking, and the AVS light came on. We slowly made our way to the side of the freeway, turned it off, turned it on again, and went on our way. We then decided that we were not stopping our car again until we got home! Too bad for dinner or using the bathroom! We prayed all the way home! (I think I might have gotten an ulcer as well). We did OK going up the big hills and then we saw a sign that said, "accident ahead, merge left." UGH!!! We were so stressed that our car would die again. Luckily, it did not. (I think the prayer helped!) We made it home with no more issues and made an appointment to take it into Honda on Monday morning.
Monday, we took it in (I refused to drive it on Sunday) and dropped it off. Several hours later they told us that there were three things that needed to be fixed (catalytic converter, valves, and belts) costing $2200. Trav and I spent several hours discussing what we were going to do. Fix everything and hope it lasts a few more years, fix nothing, fix some? We finally decided to just fix what had to be done to make it drive-able and then it would give us more time to decide what we wanted to do with it. So, $800 later I picked it up. As I am driving home, I'm talking to Travis because it seems like they've fixed nothing! It made the same noise it was making before AND it did the same shaking, not accelerating thing on the way home! Trav told me to drive it back right then ... I told him I was closer to home and was going to drive it there! The next morning we took it in again and they had us wait while they looked at it. 1 1/2 hours later, they told us that they believe the engine is going out and it would be about $9000 to fix. WOW! That made our decision right there. Trav tried to get our money back, since they hadn't fixed anything, and they refused, saying they followed Honda protocol. It was a very frustrating process ... especially since we looked at our maintenance records in the van and found out we had replaced the valves and belts 1 1/2 years ago. (Seriously, how do the dealerships NOT share maintenance records?)
That very night (New Year's Eve) we headed out to start looking for a new car. It took about a week and a half, but we finally found a new car. We looked at the Hyundai Santa Fe, the Kia Sorento, and the Toyota Highlander. The Santa Fe offered us the most space and upgrades for the size and the price. We ended up finding one in Richmond that was a color that we liked and had the upgrades. Travis drove the van out there to trade it in. He had driven it a few times and had had no problems with it. (I had been driving Parker's car and Trav's car while we were looking because I was afraid to drive the van.) We had told them the day before when we had test driven the Santa Fe about the van and the problems that it had (check engine light, catalytic converter, burning oil, etc.) When Travis went to drive the van to Richmond, he turned on the car, and the check engine light was off! It drove perfectly fine the whole way there. The guy that we traded it in to told us that we would have gotten more money for it if we hadn't told them about the check engine light. I'm just glad we told them all we did, because it made me feel like we were being honest with him. Seriously ... buying a car is so stressful! Hopefully we won't have to buy another one for a very long time!
I'm enjoying driving it and getting used to a new car. It's definitely smaller than the van and we worried a little about storage capacity. The nice thing is that is seats 7, so we have the option of taking more people if I am driving for sports, or school things.
We did have a tow hitch put on last Saturday, and bought a basket for it, so we have the option to fit all our things as we drive to Utah, or on other trips.
I'm really loving my new car! The only thing I'm not loving is the car payment!
