Swagger Wagon

We got a minivan! Yeah, it's so dope! We call it the Swagger Wagon. A 2008 Toyota Sienna 8-seater. Heidi was on kelly blue book instead of craigslist, and she saw this unusually low-priced van at a dealership in Pleasanton. She called to ask why it was so cheap and it was something about how it had sat on the lot for 60 days without selling and needed to be moved to another lot or dumped at a loss.

We went to the lot about two weeks ago and I strolled in, saying that I was a buyer.

"A buyer? What, you buys cars?"

"Yes. For my client."

We go out to check out the van and Heidi and the kids joined us. The salesperson learned that my client was Heidi, but I make him fire up the engine and I listened to it with the steth. I check out everything, and when I opened the rear door, there was a strange grinding sound.

I asked the salesperson about it and he panicked, trying to get the door to behave. Then he slams it shut, and we can't get it open from the outside.

So I low-balled him: "The timing belt hasn't been done, and that's a thousand bucks. Also, the door is broken. Let's see," I pull out the iphone and look it up, "these guys on the internet say it's $650-750."

He took my low offer and we drove it home that night. Yeah, minivans! It is way more powerful than Heidi's car. It's a 3.5 VVTI v-6 and has a built-in 8 inch subwoofer. Not exactly a Pioneer twelve, but maybe, just maybe, it's good enough.

The kids love it. Especially the built-in DVD player. I like that it's powerful and does better on gas than Heidi's dog ford. I fixed the door tonight with a specially ordered part from the dealership, and you can read about it here.

The deal gets better. I made them call the dealership who did the 80,000 check-up to see if the timing belt was done. They said that everything else was done but for some reason the timing belt was not done. I told them that is necessary and deducted the amount. They did it. Anyway, when we got home I looked into getting it done and turns out that the 2007 models and up no longer use timing belts which are expensive and need to be replaced every 80,000 miles. They upgraded to chains that go way longer. Pays to do your homework for older generations and not the actual car you are going to buy. Innocent mistake that saved us $$$. Woot Woot!

Heidi's favorite features....8 seats! If I was going to buy a car to fit more people I wanted it to fit as many people as it could. I love that I can fit 8 people or fold the entire back seat down and fit my kids in the middle row. I would highly recommend. Play dates and watching others kids have become much easier. DVD player. Blue tooth capability. Remote Control Door Opener. Power sliding doors on both sides that open and close from the comfort of my bottom. Back up sensors. Love it! Feel very blessed and very spoiled.