A Used Car Saleman?

Alan just called to say that instead of 6:15…make that 8:00 for our date tonight, so I’ve got a few unexpected minutes to share meandering thoughts. Joel just helped me advertise three of our cars on Craig’s List, so that’s on my mind. Do you get attached to your cars? We do. We give them pet names and treat them almost like they are part of the family, so it’s a bit traumatic to think of giving them up. So many memories…etc!

However, we’ve  decided that we’ve made our last trip to Florida with a van packed with 12+ kids. With only two kids left at home, and none of the married ones actually living in town, it’s a given that any future camping extravanzas are going to have most members fly in or driving from their own home towns. Soooo, it’s rather impractical to be too sentimental to trade in our 15-passenger van. It would be great for a church van or for a super large family, but it’s just not so hot for a one-person shopping trip to Meijer’s Thrifty Acres because it doesn’t get very good mileage. (What vehicle would and still be able to haul 15 people plus gear?)

Want to see our cars?Here’s the van, in all it’s glory. It’s nickname is the Ghost Ship, but don’t ask me why. It is a 2002 and has 85,000 miles. New tires and a real road burner. There have been more good times in our vans than I can count…hauling our youth group on mission trips as well as many, many 24-hour runs to points south! We have so much fun that Aaron once flew home from Boston to ride down to Florida with us rather than simply fly down to Florida and meet us there!

We also think it’s impractical to keep Alan’s little 1985 Toyota MR 2, since the trunk is a bit on the small side for hauling the week’s groceries, and it’s not really big enough for the four of us to go anywhere. Alan fell in love with this little beauty 18 years ago when we were looking for a car for Aaron to drive to Northern Michigan University when he turned 16. It was TOO CUTE and became Alan’s pet. He drove it faithfully on his 16-mile commute to work down the busiest highway in town for years, but after one of his closest friends got in an accident, and then one of his partners was killed in an accident on this same highway, Alan decided to get a bigger, safer car for his rather lethal daily road rally. It has 186,000 miles but still runs like a top. (It is time for a new timing chain.) We don’t think it would be very safe for distance driving in case of an accident (too little) such as Jon and Gerlinde might need to do when Jon runs over to Chicago to teach at Trinity or whatever.

Last but not least is our beloved “Adolphus,” alias our 1983 Mercedes Benz. It also has almost 186,000 but the engine is so quiet it’s hard to tell if it’s on! I use it every day, and I could happily keep it. However, the air conditioner is out, and it’s no longer a car we’d like to send on long missions either.

So, there you have it. We have three fully functional cars, but none that really fit our needs anymore. We need about two cars: one for hauling groceries and commuting the family around town, and one for reliably and safely driving distances. We’d keep any of them, but we’d really love to sell all three and get two that are more practical.  If you just happen to know anybody who’s looking for a car like any of these, they’re on Craig’s List now. Or, you can give whoever our number!