Extreme Makeover Car Edidion

So, 2009 has brought along alot of adversity for us. I am not going to bore all of our blog readers with the telling everyone about all of the trials that we have gone through this year, but I can definitely say that 2009 has been the most challenging year for our family since Darin and I have been married. One of those challenges has been with our family mode of transportation. We started out the year with our Ford Excursion, which was a great car except for the gas mileage. When Darin lost his job, we decided to sell the car for what we owed on the loan. We were very lucky that we found a person to take it. We then bought a Saturn (for one day). We got the car home and it had some major problems, so luckily the dealership took it back because they had misrepresented some things when it came to the sale of the car. That could have turned into a court battle, so we are lucky it didn't. We then purchased the 1986 Station Wagon that is pictured from Darin's Uncle for $200.00. We had no car and needed one desperately, so this is what we resorted to. After we got our Tax Return, we did a little car shopping and decided to purchase a 1999 Suburban with our Tax return money because we felt like we couldn't handle a car payment in our current financial situation. We felt really good about our purchase, the Suburban ran well, was clean, etc. Well, we drove it for four months and it started giving us LOTS of problems. After taking it to three different mechanics and having Shane (Heather's husband) look at it and spending way too much money on a car that old, we still don't know what is wrong with the Suburban except for sometimes it starts and sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it drives and sometimes it doesn't. We were at our wits end with our Car Troubles, so we did some more research and decided that we needed to purchase a used but new to us Toyota Sienna Minivan. Yesterday, we drove down to Utah (they had better prices) and bit the bullet and purchased a minivan with our savings. I think it will be a good car for us and it better last a really long time. At least I don't have people staring at me as I drive down the road now (not that I cared too much when we were driving the station wagon). So here it is in all it's glory. I never thought that I would ever drive a mini van, but I think it fits our family perfect. I would also like to recommend Consumer Reports when it comes to buying almost anything. They gave the ratings for any and all cars made in the past 10 years and the Sienna was #1 for minivans.