Van Bought.

Today we bought a used van to (Lord willing) take us back to Mexico!

We traded in our Chevy Astro for a Dodge Grand Caravan.  Here they are, together for the one and only time:

Why?

We really appreciated our Astro – and if they ever make them again, I might just line up to get one.  However, the last Astro was made in May 2005.

Then came new restrictions in Mexico City – on vehicles over 8 years old (our Astro was a 2003).  In fact, you can’t drive foreign vehicles in Mexico City that are over 8 years old.  You can nationalize them, but then you have other restrictions.  The Grand Caravan is a 2007, which gives us some time.

In addition – well, we do a lot of driving, and it helps to have a reliable vehicle.

The Astro wasn’t as reliable as it used to be – although I admit we were fudging in the last few months.  Was it because of the fudging that we spent hundreds … er … thousands of dollars due to Astro repairs on this trip alone?  Including… hate to say it… a repair a few days ago which we didn’t feel we could avoid.

The day we bought the Astro we started saving up for the next vehicle.

Ok, maybe I didn’t save quite enough.  There wasn’t really enough of what we wanted in our price range.  And even lowering our expectations, we still went over the budget a bit.  But I think the Grand Caravan will be a good compromise.  And it’s hard to not spend a little extra if you seem to be getting something a lot more reliable.

By the way, some friends have also donated towards this van, which was a help.  We’ll still be doing some maintenance on it before heading back.  Some things I haven’t yet been able to have done reliably in Mexico, so I really need to get it done before we go.  (If you’d like to donate, you can simply give to our support – no special notation is needed.  Instructions here.)  Thanks so much!

So . . . we have some maintenance to do (although it’s in very good shape), and we have to put our Mexico flag license plate on the front because we are cool.  Meanwhile we’re going to drive it around and let everything settle. 😉

Thanks to those who have prayed and helped in other ways as we’ve searched for a van.  Thanks to our friend Earl who went looking with me and gave lots of advice.  And thanks to many of you who recommended High Country Chevrolet Buik GMC (where we eventually purchased the van) and to Doug and Larry and others there who were so helpful.

May this van be another tool to be used in the Lord’s service in Canada, the USA, and Mexico!  In some way it’s a small thing, but it’s also something we use most days of the week and something that uses up a lot of time and money if anything goes wrong! 🙂

So – praise the Lord!  The search is over.  For now.

Now, time to start saving up for the next one . . .