Lemon

It seems abundantly clear at this point that we have a lot to learn about buying cars.  I haven't blogged about it, but our minivan has had several major problems crop up in the year that we've owned it, including a leak in the back hatch, a back door that won't close on its own, and one of the side doors completely breaking while we were at our family reunion this summer. 

The last straw, of sorts, came yesterday, when I took the kids to the mall and was getting them out of the car only to hear a crunching sound from the other side door as I tried to close it.  It was so stuck that I thought I was going to need a tow truck, but I finally managed to wrestle it closed and then got it to the dealership, where they informed me that it would be $1,900 to fix it and no, it wasn't covered by the warranty.  I had the three kids in tow and we had quite the adventure of getting to the dealership, getting shuttled to a rental car place, and finally getting a rental van.  Each step of the way involved uninstalling and then reinstalling three carseats, so the whole process was slow at best. 

Anyway, at that point, we (and by we, I mean Sacha) entered into negotiations with the dealer about swapping our van out for a similar year and model, because Siennas supposedly don't normally have these types of problems, but those ultimately went nowhere. 

So, we are going to suck it up and pay for the fixing of the door and hope that nothing else goes wrong in the near future.  Then, when it makes sense financially, we will sell the thing and get an Odyssey.  I've had a Honda Civic for the last 12 years and nothing has ever gone wrong with it, and now we are kicking ourselves for not sticking with the brand that we know and love.  I'm really just venting because there's nothing else to do about it!  Let's hope we've learned our lesson from this and exercise greater caution in the future with such purchases.  Argh.