Well, the hunt is over! We have been humbly blessed with a 2007 Honda Odyssey EX-L that is Nimbus Gray w/ Olive interior. It has heated leather seats, sunroof, DVD player and has the back up sensors!
I wanted to share our journey of the process of buying the minivan, in hopes that it will encourage others of God's faithfulness and answered prayers.
I have been wanting a Honda Odyssey for awhile (as most of you know), and we have been saving cash for it. Once we found out in April that we were expecting baby #2, the hunt went from just internet researching to looking and test driving. We looked at several (I will spare you the details of all those) but had decided we may need to make a trip to Chicago in order to get exactly what I wanted (which had to be in the color Nimbus Gray) for the best price (and I say what 'I' wanted b/c my loving husband let me choose what we got). We have prayed diligently, seeking God's wisdom and guidance about this purchase. This past Thursday night, after going over my list of Odyssey's I found to possibly look at (yes, I made an excel spreadsheet!) and discussing whether or not to go to Chicago, we didn't feel God's leading to go for the 2nd weekend in a row. I was beginning to feel discouraged, because I couldn't find exactly what I wanted for the price I was willing to pay. Well, after Shane went to bed at midnight Thursday night, I just lifted the whole thing up to God. I actually prayed according to Colossians 4:12, that God would make know to me His will for the minivan and make me fully confident in it. I then remembered a minivan I had come across in Des Moines . We were actually going to go look at it a few weeks prior, but then Tanner (Shane's brother) got a job in Iowa and we went to 'welcome' him to the state instead. We didn't make a point to go a different weekend cuz we kinda crossed it off the list due to it had 73,000+ miles and thought we could find something with less miles around Chicago...the only thing was, the prices for them were so much more.
So I looked up the website were the minivan was and it was still listed. I got a huge sense of peace and excitement that this was the one that God had intended for us. So before I went to bed, I pulled the autocheck and carFAX on it, and everything checked out. They showed that it was 1 owner, and had all the suggested maintenance done on it at the appropriate mileage, and no accidents. I then looked up the KBB value and Edmunds TMW on it, I then ran those numbers in my budget and was loving the bottom line.
I am gonna pause here and explain the kind of deal we were looking for...we didn't want to pay over 'private party value' for the minivan, and we wanted 'private party value' for our car if we were gonna trade, since we knew what we could sell our car for.
So Friday morning, I told Shane that I found the one and that we needed to head to Des Moines and asked him to pray about it. We discussed why we should be against higher mileage, and came up with no reason to be if the minivan checks out ok and the price is right. You seem to get a better value with a little higher miles, because most people have a 'mental block' in their head about mileage, so if you are willing to go with a a little higher miles, you are gonna get the better deal. We thought the minivan was definitely worth looking at since it was the color I wanted and had the heated leather seats, sunroof and DVD player (my wish list).
I prayed Friday morning, that if this was God's will, He would make it known to us without a doubt. Everything began to fall into place. First I called to verify the minivan was still for sale and had NOT been smoked in. Next, I was able to get us a cheap hotel 1/2 mile from the car lot (during state fair weekend...when I looked up the hotel online, it said it was completely booked, so I thought I would at least try by calling them, and they had a room!) Next, I was able to find a mechanic to do a pre-purchase inspection for us Saturday morning (which isn't the easiest to do) and they were located only a mile from the car lot. Our neighbors were an answer to prayer when they said they would be able to let Bella out for us while we were gone. It then came down to the weather...we had storms rolling in Friday evening, and the radar didn't look good at all. Shane came home from work, we loaded the car and stopped at Subway to eat supper before heading out. It was storming while we ate and as we headed out of town. But we soon drove out of it and it turned out to be an beautiful drive watching the sun go down. Des Moines is only a 2 hour drive, so got there around 9pm. We just relaxed and went to bed.
Saturday morning, we got up and ate some breakfast and headed to the car lot. We looked over the van inside and out, and it was one of the cleanest we had seen, and the leather was in probably the best condition out of all the minivans we had test drove. We discovered it had back up sensors (that feature wasn't listed in the details on the website) and was a pleasant surprise. (That has been my only concern driving something so big...backing into something!)
The salesman was actually quite pleasant (another thing you don't experience very often). He wasn't pushy and didn't just talk to be talking. He gave us the keys and said take it for as long as you like. When we got in the van and pulled off the lot the mileage read 73,703 miles...now for those that know me well, know that 7's and 3's are my lucky numbers so to speak and a way that God often brings comfort to a situation for me (I don't know how else to explain it, strange I know, but I have countless examples of it in my life). So we hit the interstate with it and it drove great. So we headed back to the car lot and told our salesman we were taking it to have a pre-purchase inspection done and would be back later. We also picked up our car, so we could go somewhere while the inspection was being done. The inspection report was good and the mechanic said there was nothing he could see that would prevent him from buying the minivan.
We left and went to the car wash across the street. I really wanted to wash the Camry if we were going to be getting rid of it, because its been such a blessing from God and I wanted to leave it in the best condition. After we were done washing the Camry we headed back to the car lot.
We told the salesman we would be interested in buying the Odyssey and so we sat down and started the negotiations. He shot us a number and it was reasonable. I then told him that we may want to trade our car (he didn't like hearing that! Car buying tip - negotiate the price of the vehicle before you talk trade...dealers hate this, but it puts you in the best position). He told us he couldn't do the price he just said with a trade. I told him to just give us what he would do, because we had a cash number + trade that we were only willing to do. So he gave us his 'bottom line' and Shane and I asked him to give us some time to talk. The number was more than we were willing to do, but I got out my notebook and calculator and Shane and I calculated the only deal we were willing to do. It was quite a bit less and at this time I was beginning to doubt that this was the 'one' God had for us, because I was sure the salesman would never do it. But God place a number on my heart and it was what Shane was thinking too, so I knew that was all we should do.
Shane walked out of the room and offered the number to the guy, and he said there was no way he could come close to doing that. He said he even just called his boss and he was upset that he even gave us the price he did. Shane said thanks for your time and came back to get Emma and I in the office. As I was packing up the diaper bag, the salesman asked if he could get my number in case he would get anything else in. I gave him my number and said only call if he got something exactly like the Odyssey he had. We then headed out the door. I had the strangest feeling of confusion (b/c I was for sure this was the one, I even told Shane that when we first drove it) but also a great sense of peace. As we pulled out of the lot, Shane and I discussed how that must not have been the 'one', but so worth the trip b/c we gained a great bit of knowledge from it...just how below book a dealer will go.
3 minutes later my phone rings......and its the salesman! I answered it and he said that if we wanted to turn around and come back, he would do the deal we offered him!!! I said we would turn around. I hang up the phone and tell Shane to go back, they will do the deal! At this point, I can't stop laughing because I was in shock, I never thought they would take the deal. The entire process was exactly how Dave Ramsey describes to get the best deal to a 't'...you gotta walk away to show them thats all you are gonna do!
Upon arriving back to the car lot, Shane says to the salesman 'so you had a change of heart'. He said 'yeah, that it was nearing the end of the month and they actually had a good month so far, and he knew since we were from out of town that we weren't coming back, so now was his chance.'
So we sit down again and start the paperwork. The salesman begins to go thru the contract with purchase price, trade-in, taxes, license and registration...and then there is a $199 'documentation fee', I immediately ask where that goes (I had my notebook in my lap with every expense that it was going to cost me to buy this vehicle down to the last cent and I ain't never heard of no 'documentation fee'). The salesman said it was a fee that just goes to the 'house' and its been around since he started working there 14 years ago. Shane pipes up and says 'that isn't the deal we agreed to'...the salesman replies that he has to leave it on there, and we said we weren't paying it (we seriously would have walked over this $199 bogus fee), the salesman could see this on our faces and said he would drop the purchase price by the $199, since he did really have to leave it on as a documentation fee. We said that was fine, just as long as we weren't paying the additional $199. So he reprinted the contract and now it matched up to what I had figured.
(FYI-if you are buying a car, never ever pay these additional fees, they will call them all sorts of things, and they are bogus...they are just to add to the dealer's bottom line. If you are unsure of all the costs involved in purchasing a car, then call your county treasurer).
All that was left to do was sign over the title to our Camry and write the check. I was a little nervous when writing the check, 'pregnancy brain' these days causes many errors and it is the largest check I ever wrote, I was sure I would screw up, but I didn't ;)
Next, we went out to clean out the Camry and load up our new Honda Odyssey! I had pretty much cleaned the Camry out a few weeks ago, so there wasn't much left. I sat in the drivers seat one last time and said goodbye and asked God to have it be as much of a blessing as it was to us to the next owner.
Shane strapped Emma in and I then asked him if I could have the privilege of driving our new Odyssey off the lot, he happily relinquished the keys! (He got to drive the Camry off the lot when we bought it 5 1/2 years ago).
We then hit the interstate and headed to Bass Pro Shop (we had decided the night before when we drove by it, we would stop on our way home so Emma could see the fish, deer and other animals). After parking at Bass Pro Shop, Emma had fell asleep, so we took some time to just praise and thank God for blessing us with wisdom, favor, and knowing without a doubt what His will was and for a great trip and the wonderful, undeserved blessing of the minivan for our family. We also prayed for our salesman...he is in his late 30's-early 40's and had suffered a 'freak' stroke in July (never would have known, as he thankfully didn't suffer any lasting paralysis. He said he was completely paralyzed for 6 minutes and could only hear the paramedics working on him, and thought for sure he was going to die). Also, when I asked him about his family photo on his desk...he has 2 kids (an 8 year old son and a daughter only a week older than Emma), and also an adopted 16 year old son (who is his wife's nephew that they adopted when his parents died 10 years ago in a car wreck...talk about heartbreaking!)
We woke up Emma and took her inside...she really enjoyed seeing the huge fish and the animals...she wasn't so sure about the huge bear tho. We then enjoyed lunch at 'the fish bowl' that is connected to the shop. We then headed home. Shane drove part way until I had to pee, then I drove the rest of the way. It was a pretty awesome feeling pulling in the driveway for the first time! We felt really blessed and amazed at how stress-free the whole process was.
God definitely answered my prayer that I have been praying for quite some time...to be able to pay cash for the minivan. Buying this minivan broke a huge mental barrier for me, one that I wasn't so sure I could achieve when I first committed it to prayer. But I want to honor God with our finances and He was faithful. Being able to achieve this, lets me know that their isn't anything that we can't save up for and pay cash for.
Now time for some pictures...
I wanted to share our journey of the process of buying the minivan, in hopes that it will encourage others of God's faithfulness and answered prayers.
I have been wanting a Honda Odyssey for awhile (as most of you know), and we have been saving cash for it. Once we found out in April that we were expecting baby #2, the hunt went from just internet researching to looking and test driving. We looked at several (I will spare you the details of all those) but had decided we may need to make a trip to Chicago in order to get exactly what I wanted (which had to be in the color Nimbus Gray) for the best price (and I say what 'I' wanted b/c my loving husband let me choose what we got). We have prayed diligently, seeking God's wisdom and guidance about this purchase. This past Thursday night, after going over my list of Odyssey's I found to possibly look at (yes, I made an excel spreadsheet!) and discussing whether or not to go to Chicago, we didn't feel God's leading to go for the 2nd weekend in a row. I was beginning to feel discouraged, because I couldn't find exactly what I wanted for the price I was willing to pay. Well, after Shane went to bed at midnight Thursday night, I just lifted the whole thing up to God. I actually prayed according to Colossians 4:12, that God would make know to me His will for the minivan and make me fully confident in it. I then remembered a minivan I had come across in Des Moines . We were actually going to go look at it a few weeks prior, but then Tanner (Shane's brother) got a job in Iowa and we went to 'welcome' him to the state instead. We didn't make a point to go a different weekend cuz we kinda crossed it off the list due to it had 73,000+ miles and thought we could find something with less miles around Chicago...the only thing was, the prices for them were so much more.
So I looked up the website were the minivan was and it was still listed. I got a huge sense of peace and excitement that this was the one that God had intended for us. So before I went to bed, I pulled the autocheck and carFAX on it, and everything checked out. They showed that it was 1 owner, and had all the suggested maintenance done on it at the appropriate mileage, and no accidents. I then looked up the KBB value and Edmunds TMW on it, I then ran those numbers in my budget and was loving the bottom line.
I am gonna pause here and explain the kind of deal we were looking for...we didn't want to pay over 'private party value' for the minivan, and we wanted 'private party value' for our car if we were gonna trade, since we knew what we could sell our car for.
So Friday morning, I told Shane that I found the one and that we needed to head to Des Moines and asked him to pray about it. We discussed why we should be against higher mileage, and came up with no reason to be if the minivan checks out ok and the price is right. You seem to get a better value with a little higher miles, because most people have a 'mental block' in their head about mileage, so if you are willing to go with a a little higher miles, you are gonna get the better deal. We thought the minivan was definitely worth looking at since it was the color I wanted and had the heated leather seats, sunroof and DVD player (my wish list).
I prayed Friday morning, that if this was God's will, He would make it known to us without a doubt. Everything began to fall into place. First I called to verify the minivan was still for sale and had NOT been smoked in. Next, I was able to get us a cheap hotel 1/2 mile from the car lot (during state fair weekend...when I looked up the hotel online, it said it was completely booked, so I thought I would at least try by calling them, and they had a room!) Next, I was able to find a mechanic to do a pre-purchase inspection for us Saturday morning (which isn't the easiest to do) and they were located only a mile from the car lot. Our neighbors were an answer to prayer when they said they would be able to let Bella out for us while we were gone. It then came down to the weather...we had storms rolling in Friday evening, and the radar didn't look good at all. Shane came home from work, we loaded the car and stopped at Subway to eat supper before heading out. It was storming while we ate and as we headed out of town. But we soon drove out of it and it turned out to be an beautiful drive watching the sun go down. Des Moines is only a 2 hour drive, so got there around 9pm. We just relaxed and went to bed.
Saturday morning, we got up and ate some breakfast and headed to the car lot. We looked over the van inside and out, and it was one of the cleanest we had seen, and the leather was in probably the best condition out of all the minivans we had test drove. We discovered it had back up sensors (that feature wasn't listed in the details on the website) and was a pleasant surprise. (That has been my only concern driving something so big...backing into something!)
The salesman was actually quite pleasant (another thing you don't experience very often). He wasn't pushy and didn't just talk to be talking. He gave us the keys and said take it for as long as you like. When we got in the van and pulled off the lot the mileage read 73,703 miles...now for those that know me well, know that 7's and 3's are my lucky numbers so to speak and a way that God often brings comfort to a situation for me (I don't know how else to explain it, strange I know, but I have countless examples of it in my life). So we hit the interstate with it and it drove great. So we headed back to the car lot and told our salesman we were taking it to have a pre-purchase inspection done and would be back later. We also picked up our car, so we could go somewhere while the inspection was being done. The inspection report was good and the mechanic said there was nothing he could see that would prevent him from buying the minivan.
We left and went to the car wash across the street. I really wanted to wash the Camry if we were going to be getting rid of it, because its been such a blessing from God and I wanted to leave it in the best condition. After we were done washing the Camry we headed back to the car lot.
We told the salesman we would be interested in buying the Odyssey and so we sat down and started the negotiations. He shot us a number and it was reasonable. I then told him that we may want to trade our car (he didn't like hearing that! Car buying tip - negotiate the price of the vehicle before you talk trade...dealers hate this, but it puts you in the best position). He told us he couldn't do the price he just said with a trade. I told him to just give us what he would do, because we had a cash number + trade that we were only willing to do. So he gave us his 'bottom line' and Shane and I asked him to give us some time to talk. The number was more than we were willing to do, but I got out my notebook and calculator and Shane and I calculated the only deal we were willing to do. It was quite a bit less and at this time I was beginning to doubt that this was the 'one' God had for us, because I was sure the salesman would never do it. But God place a number on my heart and it was what Shane was thinking too, so I knew that was all we should do.
Shane walked out of the room and offered the number to the guy, and he said there was no way he could come close to doing that. He said he even just called his boss and he was upset that he even gave us the price he did. Shane said thanks for your time and came back to get Emma and I in the office. As I was packing up the diaper bag, the salesman asked if he could get my number in case he would get anything else in. I gave him my number and said only call if he got something exactly like the Odyssey he had. We then headed out the door. I had the strangest feeling of confusion (b/c I was for sure this was the one, I even told Shane that when we first drove it) but also a great sense of peace. As we pulled out of the lot, Shane and I discussed how that must not have been the 'one', but so worth the trip b/c we gained a great bit of knowledge from it...just how below book a dealer will go.
3 minutes later my phone rings......and its the salesman! I answered it and he said that if we wanted to turn around and come back, he would do the deal we offered him!!! I said we would turn around. I hang up the phone and tell Shane to go back, they will do the deal! At this point, I can't stop laughing because I was in shock, I never thought they would take the deal. The entire process was exactly how Dave Ramsey describes to get the best deal to a 't'...you gotta walk away to show them thats all you are gonna do!
Upon arriving back to the car lot, Shane says to the salesman 'so you had a change of heart'. He said 'yeah, that it was nearing the end of the month and they actually had a good month so far, and he knew since we were from out of town that we weren't coming back, so now was his chance.'
So we sit down again and start the paperwork. The salesman begins to go thru the contract with purchase price, trade-in, taxes, license and registration...and then there is a $199 'documentation fee', I immediately ask where that goes (I had my notebook in my lap with every expense that it was going to cost me to buy this vehicle down to the last cent and I ain't never heard of no 'documentation fee'). The salesman said it was a fee that just goes to the 'house' and its been around since he started working there 14 years ago. Shane pipes up and says 'that isn't the deal we agreed to'...the salesman replies that he has to leave it on there, and we said we weren't paying it (we seriously would have walked over this $199 bogus fee), the salesman could see this on our faces and said he would drop the purchase price by the $199, since he did really have to leave it on as a documentation fee. We said that was fine, just as long as we weren't paying the additional $199. So he reprinted the contract and now it matched up to what I had figured.
(FYI-if you are buying a car, never ever pay these additional fees, they will call them all sorts of things, and they are bogus...they are just to add to the dealer's bottom line. If you are unsure of all the costs involved in purchasing a car, then call your county treasurer).
All that was left to do was sign over the title to our Camry and write the check. I was a little nervous when writing the check, 'pregnancy brain' these days causes many errors and it is the largest check I ever wrote, I was sure I would screw up, but I didn't ;)
Next, we went out to clean out the Camry and load up our new Honda Odyssey! I had pretty much cleaned the Camry out a few weeks ago, so there wasn't much left. I sat in the drivers seat one last time and said goodbye and asked God to have it be as much of a blessing as it was to us to the next owner.
Shane strapped Emma in and I then asked him if I could have the privilege of driving our new Odyssey off the lot, he happily relinquished the keys! (He got to drive the Camry off the lot when we bought it 5 1/2 years ago).
We then hit the interstate and headed to Bass Pro Shop (we had decided the night before when we drove by it, we would stop on our way home so Emma could see the fish, deer and other animals). After parking at Bass Pro Shop, Emma had fell asleep, so we took some time to just praise and thank God for blessing us with wisdom, favor, and knowing without a doubt what His will was and for a great trip and the wonderful, undeserved blessing of the minivan for our family. We also prayed for our salesman...he is in his late 30's-early 40's and had suffered a 'freak' stroke in July (never would have known, as he thankfully didn't suffer any lasting paralysis. He said he was completely paralyzed for 6 minutes and could only hear the paramedics working on him, and thought for sure he was going to die). Also, when I asked him about his family photo on his desk...he has 2 kids (an 8 year old son and a daughter only a week older than Emma), and also an adopted 16 year old son (who is his wife's nephew that they adopted when his parents died 10 years ago in a car wreck...talk about heartbreaking!)
We woke up Emma and took her inside...she really enjoyed seeing the huge fish and the animals...she wasn't so sure about the huge bear tho. We then enjoyed lunch at 'the fish bowl' that is connected to the shop. We then headed home. Shane drove part way until I had to pee, then I drove the rest of the way. It was a pretty awesome feeling pulling in the driveway for the first time! We felt really blessed and amazed at how stress-free the whole process was.
God definitely answered my prayer that I have been praying for quite some time...to be able to pay cash for the minivan. Buying this minivan broke a huge mental barrier for me, one that I wasn't so sure I could achieve when I first committed it to prayer. But I want to honor God with our finances and He was faithful. Being able to achieve this, lets me know that their isn't anything that we can't save up for and pay cash for.
Now time for some pictures...
Saying good bye to my Camry
Hello Honda Odyssey!
I absolutely love having this minivan! It drives fantastic and I love the height where it puts Emma at...not to low and not too high for putting her in her carseat, and I can move her seat way forward, so its easy to hand her things from the front. The dual power sliding doors are great.
Emma and I took it on our first little adventure on Monday to the QC to go and see Heather, Jon and baby Nolan on their way thru to moving back to Indiana, and we did a little shopping (well, just Kohl's) but parking was a breeze and just getting around and going thru drive-thrus was easy. I didn't really expect it to handle so nicely! Most of all though, I love that it is paid for, praise God for that!
Emma and I took it on our first little adventure on Monday to the QC to go and see Heather, Jon and baby Nolan on their way thru to moving back to Indiana, and we did a little shopping (well, just Kohl's) but parking was a breeze and just getting around and going thru drive-thrus was easy. I didn't really expect it to handle so nicely! Most of all though, I love that it is paid for, praise God for that!
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