Van Updates and Pics of the Littles

This post was just going to be about some things we’ve learned about the van since its purchase, but then my kids were just way too cute this evening to be left out.

Have you bought a vehicle at a dealership? You know that little room they put you in and try to make you buy additional coatings/insurance/garbage? I loathe that room. When we went into it four years ago to purchase Stella, we knew exactly what we wanted and held our ground, leaving it paying exactly what we were expecting. Stella was a brand new car, and our van (who remains nameless so far) was pre-owned, so I figured we wouldn’t be offered/pushed about all that crap. But we were, and we were less prepared, not having talked about it. They were offering us an additional warranty, but wanted more than we were willing to spend for not too many extra kms. We genuinely didn’t mean to haggle, but somehow got the additional warranty for a ridiculously good deal.

It is somewhat ironic that they pushed that warranty so hard onto us, as we learned a few things about our van on the drive home. The heater fan squeaks. The brakes grind. There’s a squeal when it starts up from cold. We are sooo thankful they pushed us so hard, as that will all be taken care of at their cost as opposed to ours. We have to pay to have the vehicle safetied, which is a bit of a hassle, but we have four weeks to get there, so I’m not too worried. Even those fixes are little, but after paying  decent amount for a vehicle, you want it to work. And that, folks, is why we get warranty!

Our biggest annoyance, or frustration, is that our van was advertised that it had Bluetooth, and it certainly does not. It was the capabilities, and the buttons on the dash, but it continually just says its unavailable. I tried to get in touch with our salesman a few times and he screened me. After waiting a number of days with no response to my emails, I sent Brady on the case. Maybe that was mean, because he hates confrontation, but so do I, and I had tried! Brady called and left a message, and received a call back fairly quickly. Our salesman was very nonchalant about the whole thing and said that it was just a little typo, and that happens sometimes. Brady surprised me, and answered back by explaining that it was in the ad as a feature that we were counting on. We were accustomed to having it, and being a busy family with two kids who hope to have more down the road, it is something that we were requiring of our next vehicle. We quite possibly would not have bought that van if we knew it didn’t have Bluetooth. Well, that man back-pedalled all over the place and said he’d speak with his manager about it. It took about a day of back and forth, but our dealership has a agreed to help us out! We will go to a Dodge dealership and find out the full cost of the system upgrade and labor costs, call our guy, and they will be sent the bill. The module part alone costs over $350. We are sooo thrilled about this!!! I’m hoping to have a day in the city next week so I may make an appointment and drop in there and get it done right away here. YAY!

Ok, enough about our van. Here are our adorable kids.

He's starting to look like what I think he'll look like as a teenager. Just way too grown up for his own good!
He’s starting to look like what I think he’ll look like as a teenager. Just way too grown up for his own good!
...but still a kid :)
…but still a kid 🙂
She is such a ham these days, haha! Just cracks me up!
She is such a ham these days, haha! Just cracks me up!

 

See how the shine in her eyes are in different places on each eye? That scares me. *shivers* That means eyes that aren't straight. Again. Just a little plug for prayers for her.
See how the shine in her eyes are in slightly different places on each eye? That scares me. *shivers* That means eyes that aren’t straight. Again. Just a little plug for prayers for her.
And let's end on a positive - an ALMOST tear free bath!!! Water guns, guys. Water guns.
And let’s end on a positive – an ALMOST tear free bath!!! Water guns, guys. Water guns.

I had a great day with these beautiful kids, and we were so thankful to have Brady home at a reasonable time so we could all spend a full evening together. Both kids are bathed and happy, Laela’s hair is lightening like crazy!!,  and she ate more rice cereal, successfully! Its wonderful to see things progressing the way they are. Thank you, God!