Saturday, August 16, 2008

Ark on Wheels

Any one who has been reading here for a while knows that the $64,000 question on the Ark has been about which vehicle would be chosen to carry our growing family.

Well, the vehicle has been chosen and it is...drumroll please...

the SAME Suburban we've been driving for the past 3 years.

What?!? How will we fit nine people into an eight passenger SUV? Do the words "double buckle" mean anything to you? No, no, I'm just kidding. Especially for those of you in the law enforcement industry, I would never *dream* of breaking the seatbelt law.

It was not an easy decision. And there were several factors that played into our decision:

  • The love we feel for our current 4x4 vehicle--it's not just transport for us. Think Knight Rider and David Hasselhof. Or (more pleasantly) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Dick Van Dyke. It's one of us.
  • The Captain's religious differences with the uber-conspicuous extendo-van.
  • The price of gas leading to the falling SUV market--leaving us with a vehicle worth $5,000 less than it was 6 months ago!
  • Shocking as it may seem, dealers have no shortage of demand for 12 or 15 passenger vans and--even amidst the gas crisis--and aren't ready to deal yet.
So, we went back to the drawing board. And decided that the best vehicle for us was the one we already had with a little tweaking. We decided to invest in a fourth row for the Suburban. It will give us two additional seats, which is one more than we need---at least for now---and will buy us some time at a relatively low price.

But don't worry, those of you who see us during long car trips. We won't disappoint. We've also decided we'd do a few test runs during this interim period. We'll be renting the gargantu-van to do our long trips to see which ones, for future reference, we like best!

9 comments:

darci said...

good for you. we're trying to find a suburban..it is VERY hard to find one , it seems. we almost bought one in texas (and we are in saskatchewan:)

Dawn said...

WOW ~ I didn't know they made 4th row seats! We looked at Surburbans a few months ago.

Mama of 5 said...

We are in the "enough seats" dilema too. We are maxed now with our van. The boys in the back row are not working so well...so squished and oh, so loud! "He's looking at me, he's touching me". Poor Tuba has about 2 in. to sit in!
Becky

Laura said...

Great idea! We did the same thing a couple of children ago when we had a Ford Explorer...only 'problem' we had was that we needed to pack our double stroller in the back and we needed four carseats so it was a bit 'tight'. We had to sell and upgrade sooner than we wanted...

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to see the monster van that I'm guessing you'll be sporting in November!!!
Love,
CC

TD said...

Good for you. But will the Danstrom's still fit when they are desperate for a ride to the park?

Jane (a.k.a. patjrsmom) said...

There's ALWAYS room for the Danstroms! ;-)

Jane

Michelle said...

Good for you! We opted to keep our 8 passenger van when we outgrew it almost a year ago. It hasn't taken much to get used to taking two vehicles to mass or special events where we all need/want to be in attendance.

Life in Fitzville said...

Very cool!

We just got back from a West Coast trip, and had looked into renting a 15 passenger. It turns out it's cheaper to rent TWO minivans than one big van! So silly!

I am way behind on your blog here, and trying to catch up, bit I just have to say the newest little arkling is too cute for words!!! Can't wait to read/see more about her!