I have a fair history of accepting, gifting, buying and selling various automobiles. In college people would give me vehicles. Not great ones, but they ran. Notables included a Chrysler New Yorker (huge), a Checker Marathon complete with taxi jump seats –aka the Leprosy Cab Co. – and a Chevrolet Vega – the Oy’ Vega or Vegamatic. More recent acquisitions and dispositions include Volkswagen being forced to buy back my 2014 Passat Diesel for about what I paid for it which I in turn purchased a 2015 Lincoln MKZ which itself was just sold so I could acquire my brother’s POS 2006 Honda Odyssey. This note is about these latter transactions.
About the beginning of the Pandemic Brother George (G) bought two e-bikes, including his Trek costing over $6,000. He also bought an expensive hitch mounted rack for them, but alas… had no vehicle capable of a tow/hitch. For a while he borrowed neighbor Charlie’s new red pickup truck. Nice truck. I rode in it. G has many friends and contacts around Madison WI including one Jeff Dunn who owns an import used car and repair business. Jeff gets G the 2006 Honda for a paltry $3,000. Yeah, $3k to move almost $10k of ebikes. G puts 6,000 miles on it including one trip to Michigan. Yeah, since he brought his e-bike to Michigan I had to buy an e-bike. This is known as “keeping up with the Georges”. (love my Trek 7s).
That was LAST year. This year good ol’ Jeff finds G a newer, yet still high miles Honda to replace the 2006. G offered it to me. I, always the impulse buyer, said “sure”. G lets me know about a $149 one way Delta flight DTW to MSN, but I upgrade from “basic” to “main” simply to allow me to modify the ticket if needed. (basic is a ‘you bought this and this is all you get’). Good thing too, since when I went a couple of days later to put the flight into my calendar I discovered that Delta had issued me a ticket, not to Madison Wisconsin, but rather to Hartford Connecticut. Got that straight and flew to Madtown to meet G and my new/old POS.
G. picked me up at Dane County Airport (MSN) with what I now refer to as the “Buzzardmobile” on a picture perfect day. We rode e-bikes all over, shopped liquor at Woodman’s and did the X supper club. Great day. In the morning I drove down to Wilmette to have a Chicago Dog with Cousin Marlene. I got routed to a non-expressway all the way down to Racine and avoided two major tie-ups on I-94.
Made it home to Ypsilanti without incident, though the Buzzardmobile was already showing issues. The Navigation system failed to read its disc leading to constant spaced beeping and no nav. I had been warned that there was a serious electrical problem that killed the battery over time. It started in Madison and Wilmett, but started – or failed to start – multiple times at home. Ultimately, I put our large deep-cycle canoe battery in with my best jumper cables to be safe. Good thing too.
I bought another trickle charger and whilst Mare and I were off to Oregon and Alaska assumed it would keep the battery up to snuf. Nah. It couldn’t work with a completely ruined battery.
We returned from Seattle on June 20th taking a Delta morning flight rather than trying to get to SEATAC the 19th when our ship docked and avoiding the red-eye to Detroit. (When traveling from the West Coast you basically get early morning or overnight, aka “red-eye”). Knowing we would stay in Seattle I booked a room at the airport Red Roof. Disembarking we were burdened by luggage and fatigue so we opted for a bona fide taxi. $55 to the airport. It is a long way from the cruiseport. Check in at Red Roof is 1:00 p.m. which appeared better than the typical 3:00 p.m. but we arrived about 9:10. The desk clerk was on the phone just then telling someone “no you cannot check in early” but for us someone had cancelled a room and it did not need housekeeping attention. Hence we ensconced in our room at 9:20.
It was a lovely sunny day and I had considered taking the light rail back into town to do a bit of tourist stuff. Light rail for seniors cost $1.00. Mare, however, who had for a day or so a scratchy throat was down for the count with what she thought was a common cold. I too was tired and had no specific plan to go tourist so we spent the entire day in the room resting off and on. Dinner was a pizza. Rather ordinary pizza from Pizza Hut, but rang up $34 after delivery charges, taxes and whatever. $5.40 for two bottles of pop from the gas station next door. Well, now I am really out of cash.
Monday we shuttle to our flight where Delta offers us $3,000 to take the red-eye. We considered it IF they would bundle the Delta Club so we had a place to stay ALL day. They declined and we declined. Part of my decision hinged on all the stuff I planned for Tuesday in Michigan. That included getting a make-up Rotary at the Jackson morning club which meets at 7:00 a.m.
Back to minivans. The other thing I needed to do on Tuesday in Jackson was pay for a replacement minivan. The “issues” with the Buzzardmobile seemed to be multiplying every time I turned around. While I knew the electric side doors did not electric, the back gate did. But the latch for the back gate failed. Without access from the back the utility was severely diminished. I got it open, but that was the fatal straw.
Despite having been on the full scale charger – not the trickler- the Buzzardmobile failed to start. The canoe battery to the rescue I jumped it and headed to Jackson.
I just made Steves Ranch restaurant exactly at 7:00 a.m. only to find a solitary car in the parking lot. The morning club wasn’t meeting there. Maybe somewhere else, but not there. I have 28 years of perfect Rotary attendance and was completely unable to find a workable makeup during the two weeks we were out West. Well, I do get credit for coming even if there was no meeting. I settled in for breakfast. While dining I got a text from Mare, “Tested Positive, Mask up”. So, not a common cold after all. And, probably good there was no meeting for me to infect.
Thus, it is now 7:30 but I have to obtain a cashier’s check to buy the replacement van. More on that below. The issue then was my credit union opens at 9:30. I decided to find a COVID test. Breakfast done, out in the parking lot….. Buzzardmobile had dead battery…..again. Jumped it with the canoe battery and figured that the cables were long enough to leave the battery itself in the van. I also reversed the polarity for a bit and about started a fire. There were sparks and smoke, but I stopped that quickly.
On to the Walgreens on West Avenue where I acquired eight home tests in the drive through while trying not to have Buzzardmobile die. Drove to the credit union and parked in a lovely shaded area to rest and take my COVID test. No surprise, very positive. At 9:31 I N95’d myself and got my check and some cash. I asked the seller, Norma, to not text me when she was available (expected to be after 1:30 p.m.) but call me. She did right away and we effected the transaction leaving the newer van in the TBI parking lot for the night.
So, what about this other minivan? Although Mare accepted the utility of having a minivan she firmly pointed out that two people do not need FOUR vehicles. Though I really liked the MKZ, now with 72,000 miles, I had to admit that she had only driven maybe 200 miles in 2 months. In fact I had to jump start the MKZ too. The MKZ was our tow vehicle with a class I hitch. The Buzzardmobile had a class III hitch. I had to admit that we did not use nor need two sedans. I sold the MKZ a day before G and I headed to Scotland for two weeks.
It was becoming more and more apparent that whereas G used the Buzzardmobile sparingly and did not suffer too many defects, what I wanted was a replacement for the second sedan/tow vehicle. Buzzardmobile was not going to cut it, not to mention use in winter. I started looking for a genuine replacement.
For a moment it looked like there was an amazing offer on Craigslist out of East Lansing. A 2019 Toyota Siena 4wheel drive 42k miles for only $18,900. Sounded too good to be true and it was. I tried multiple times to contact the seller before I left for Scotland without success. So, I looked elsewhere assuming at that price it was just gone. I did find through my financial guy Jamie that another of his clients, Norma, had a Town and Country for sale and I made arrangements to purchase that. Then, I got contact from the Sienna seller with a bs story about it being her mother’s car. Seller than send great photos, no doubt downloaded from someone else’s add and then gave a different story that she was just divorce and the minvan had been ex-husband’s “Pride and Joy”. That rang false. What American male would have a minivan as his pride and joy? Plus, the seller could not be called, their contact was text only, and why had it not sold already? I voiced my suspicion and requested a copy of the vehicle title to verify ownership and get the VIN. Crickets. Only then did I look up the Blue Book value which was over $40,000. Hah……
So, Norma wanted to get into a newer, smaller vehicle, but had not picked one out. The dealer offered a trade value for her 2013 T&C of $7,000. She would also have obtained a trade-in tax credit of around $500 so I offered $7.5. She declined as that was the same as the dealer. I increased my offer to $8k and after a day she accepted. A benefit for her was having the T&C to drive while she hunted the replacement. I didn’t mind as not only did I have other vehicles, I was leaving in a day or so for two weeks in Scotland. The day I returned she had lined up her replacement car setting the stage for my trip June 21 to get the check and get the title.
The T&C also has high miles, 142k+ (the Buzzardmobile had 172k). Some of those miles were travel to/from Florida where the car was purchased by her late husband. [She insisted that the vehicle’s name is Valentine as her hubby gave it to her as a VD gift. I suggested that I would retain the name, but I lied. With $8k I purchase naming rights and it ain’t gonna be Valentine.]
The T&C, unlike the Buzzardmobile, is fully functional, i.e. everything works. And it is a top of the line model having all perks except a sunroof. The electric doors all work, though I didn’t think so, it has a Nav system, Blue Ray DVD, keyless entry, and best of all Stow and Go seats.
We have had a couple of minivans before including a T&C. To me they are the Swiss Army Knives of cars. We have names for the multiple configurations of seating. Prior vans had seats that had to be manually removed from the vehicle, weighed an unreasonable amount necessitating moving with a hand truck and storage somewhere. This T&C has tubs below the floor that with a couple of moves will hold ALL of the rear seating leaving a flat floor as we call it Cargo Mode. The seats literally drop away and are gone. That is extraordinary. There are several other perks including a small built-in flashlight at the back and 115v inverter source.
We just went last weekend to Connecticut for the memorial services for Mare’s late mother. We drove the T&C with a light “bed” set in the back. Hence, while one drove the other could stretch out and snooze. We also were able to bring back a large cedar hope chest. The minvan reached 29.7 mph Ypsi to Toledo (Flat US 23) and 26 – 27.5 mph including Pennsylvania mountains. Pretty much passed it’s maiden voyage with flying colors.
Now, I have to stop writing and prepare to go get the Jaguar out of storage.
ReiznerSpeak Minivan Modes:
AIRPORT – All seating up
LIMO – second row stored third row up
CARGO – all seats stored
TAILGATE – third row reversed onto open gate
PULLMAN – all seats stored, custom board and futon at window height
SEMI-PULLMAN – rear seats on one side stored, bed arranged in open side.