New Acquisition

Last week, we bought a new van.

Wait, let me correct that. A couple weeks previously we bought a new van. We just didn't get it until last week. In this economy, with a desperate auto-market, it took them about two weeks to get a car delivered to the lot. In fact, they had to go all the way to Florida to get the model and options we wanted.

Our last car was a first generation (2002) Kia Sedona van. Aside from some incompetence by the dealership repair department, we loved the Sedona, a very safe, very inexpensive van. So, since the new Sedona vans have 5 star crash ratings and the entire thing is upgraded in almost every way from our old van, we really didn't spend too much time searching.

Actually, we were lucky because the Kia dealership where we bought the old one (Criswell) dropped Kia which was picked up by a far superior dealership (King). If Kia sales were still at Criswell, we wouldn't have bought the car.

What's amazing is that despite this new van having all sorts of luxuries the old one didn't have (ABS brakes, power doors, stowable rear seats, and heated, leather seats), we were able to buy it for not too much more than we paid for the old Sedona in 2002. And since they're hurting for business, they didn't pressure us at all. Didn't offer us undercoating, or an extended warranty or anything. Epic win. It really is a great time to buy a car.

I do have one regret, however. One of the features that is mildly important to me is cool cockpit instrumentation. Basically, I want to drive an X-Wing. Blue, white or red gauges really make a console look futuristic and cool. For example, here's the ultra-cool gauges of the Honda Fit, a Frakkin' sub-compact. (Image from Edmunds)

You know what color doesn't look cool? Yellow. An ugly mustard yellow. Had we not wanted this van so much, the gauge color alone would have made me reject this van. Take a look below. The four glowing yellow screens are in the circles. They look horrible at night. (Photo by Automedia)


What the heck were they thinking?

In any event, we're relieved to have the whole buying process behind us and are looking forward to some driving action.