say goodbye, say hello

driving the Camry to its new home...

Robert picking up the newest member of the Kibbe vehicle collection

The story is a long one. We have been in the van hunt for about a year. We were not in desperate need, and had the cash ready, which made it easy to turn down deals that were not exactly what we wanted. Our dream van was still priced a little higher than we were ready to pay, at least this time around. Robert started seriously scouting things while he was on Christmas break from work. Many ebay bids were placed and lost, we almost had a van in Wichita, which was purchased locally just as we were placing our earnest money to hold it for us as we could not come get it until the weekend. Things slowed down after Rob went back to work as he has less time to search the web for that perfect gem.

The Monday before our roof started leaking Rob received a call from a dealer in Chicago, the same dealer that he had placed and lost a bid on ebay for a Sienna. The dealer was calling to see if we still wanted the van, Robert talked him into a great price and SOLD, we had a new vehicle. The next day our roof started leaking into the ceiling, we prayed hard about still making this deal, was this a good use for the money we had set aside for the van? We decided that we should still get the van, we felt it was a good deal, and reassured we still had the E-fund to fix the roof when it was time to do so.

My new van is a blue Toyota Sienna, it has tons of bells and whistles that I feel totally spoiled but love having. The best has to be the automatic sliding doors, that open with a touch of the key fab, and the heated seats. Emily seems to be enjoying the DVD player!

And to mention, Rob talked to the dealer about the trade in value they were willing to give for our car, it wasn't the greatest. Robert listed the Camry on Craigslist on a Monday by the end of the week we had a deal closed for twice what the dealer was going to offer. It is going to a 70 year in Story City that is going to drive it to Ames to get groceries. She also thought it was too nice to risk getting it banged up on the ice this winter so she is storing it in her sons garage until Spring. Her son was the one who was looking for the car, and we mostly dealt with him. I love that the car is going to live in an underground heated garage, and not to be run into the ground by a teenager!