We've done our part to keep the economy going as we bought 2 new cars in the past 3 weeks.
We finally succumbed to the mini-van world and got a Honda Odyssey. We're pretty happy with it, but it's just not as nice to drive as our previous 2 BMWs.. The remote side door opening is awesome with the kids. It's got a really cool backup camera that displays in the left side of the rear view mirror. Unbelievably, it got slightly hit by a drunk driver the day after we got it! We're still trying to figure out a nickname for it. Our BMW's have always been called "the Buick" after Deanna's uncle John asked 6 years ago "Who's Berlin Buick is that"? I'm leaning towards "the Brick" and D likes "the Megablock"
Yesterdays acquisition was a Nissan Altima. It's pretty fun to drive for a 4 cylinder. You never have to take the key fob out of your pocket. No keys either. It does everything by touch as long as the fob is nearby. The bluetooth handsfree works really well.
I think we got some darned great deals on the vehicles. We leased the Odyssey for 1.9% and financed the Altima for 1.9%. We toyed with the idea of waiting a bit to see if prices would come down more, but the deals seemed awfully good. There certainly wasn't much traffic in the car dealers. Southside Nissan had about a dozen and a half visits during the day and we were the only sale on their sheet.
We finally said goodbye to the wonderful 1993 Saturn SL. 140K kilometres later and failing aircare, we sadly retired it into the Scrap-it program. The engine was burning about a quart of oil per tank of gas after the engine was rebuilt in the summer when the timing chain broke. It's been a wonderful car to have. I was fondly remembering our first road-trip with it through the states and arizona/utah.
The scrap-it program is a pretty interesting idea. Old cars can be turned into transit passes, bicycles, cash towards new cars, or even electric bikes. We opted for the $750 towards a new vehicle. However, that's not really the case. The $750 is actually $500 + $250 from the dealer. As we'd bargained the dealer down to about $400 about their cost, we simply couldn't get the $250. I don't like the way the scrap-it program has fudged that number pretty seriously.
I took the Saturn to the Amex wreckers in Surrey then took Skytrain and the bus back. Darned Google directions got the bus schedule wrong though, it said the 25th avenue bus connected at 29th Ave station when it was actually at the Nanaimo station.
Now we have 2 brand spanking new vehicles that I expect we'll have for a long time.
We finally succumbed to the mini-van world and got a Honda Odyssey. We're pretty happy with it, but it's just not as nice to drive as our previous 2 BMWs.. The remote side door opening is awesome with the kids. It's got a really cool backup camera that displays in the left side of the rear view mirror. Unbelievably, it got slightly hit by a drunk driver the day after we got it! We're still trying to figure out a nickname for it. Our BMW's have always been called "the Buick" after Deanna's uncle John asked 6 years ago "Who's Berlin Buick is that"? I'm leaning towards "the Brick" and D likes "the Megablock"
Yesterdays acquisition was a Nissan Altima. It's pretty fun to drive for a 4 cylinder. You never have to take the key fob out of your pocket. No keys either. It does everything by touch as long as the fob is nearby. The bluetooth handsfree works really well.
I think we got some darned great deals on the vehicles. We leased the Odyssey for 1.9% and financed the Altima for 1.9%. We toyed with the idea of waiting a bit to see if prices would come down more, but the deals seemed awfully good. There certainly wasn't much traffic in the car dealers. Southside Nissan had about a dozen and a half visits during the day and we were the only sale on their sheet.
We finally said goodbye to the wonderful 1993 Saturn SL. 140K kilometres later and failing aircare, we sadly retired it into the Scrap-it program. The engine was burning about a quart of oil per tank of gas after the engine was rebuilt in the summer when the timing chain broke. It's been a wonderful car to have. I was fondly remembering our first road-trip with it through the states and arizona/utah.
The scrap-it program is a pretty interesting idea. Old cars can be turned into transit passes, bicycles, cash towards new cars, or even electric bikes. We opted for the $750 towards a new vehicle. However, that's not really the case. The $750 is actually $500 + $250 from the dealer. As we'd bargained the dealer down to about $400 about their cost, we simply couldn't get the $250. I don't like the way the scrap-it program has fudged that number pretty seriously.
I took the Saturn to the Amex wreckers in Surrey then took Skytrain and the bus back. Darned Google directions got the bus schedule wrong though, it said the 25th avenue bus connected at 29th Ave station when it was actually at the Nanaimo station.
Now we have 2 brand spanking new vehicles that I expect we'll have for a long time.
That's sort of funny. My parents own two vehicles: a Honda Odyssey and a Nissan Altima, also bought around the same time. Their vehicles are about 7 years older than yours, though.