With another baby on the way and me really wanting trunk space for things like our double jogging stroller, a minivan was our best option. When we searched, there are some SUVs that have a third row and a trunk, but not many and they are huge (and get like 10 mpg). We have such large (and hopefully safe) carseats, that there is no way to fit 3 across in most SUVs as well.
Over the last few months, we test drove the Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. The car we ended up liking the best was a Toyota Sienna. It drove the smoothest (was the quietest) and I like the third row in it better than the Honda (the Honda was so dark and felt small). Plus my last car was a Toyota RAV4 so I think I felt a little biased when it felt similar. I LOVED my RAV4 and was so sad to give it up. Even though the boys are so excited about the minivan, Carter has been saying he misses it too. He even gave it a kiss and told it good-bye.
The Sienna we got ended up coming from Alabama. On Thursday I went to the TrueCar website and put in zip codes within a 2 hour drive of Nashville to see who had the best price for an XLE Sienna (the XLE is one step down from the very top trim level and we did not want an entertainment package - we prefer to put the DVD players in the car only for long trips). TrueCar is supposed to give you a certificate that you can take to a specific dealer and they will honor that price. The price you are given is supposed to be the average price that buyers pay for that specific car at a specific trim level. We used this as a starting place for who to call/email to start the internet buying process. Almost all dealerships have an internet sales department now and that's actually how I bought my RAV4. I did everything through email and got the car in Nashville while we were still living in Knoxville.
TrueCar will give you the prices for any zip code you put in, but to get the official certificates, you then have to put in all your contact information. We ended up doing that for Nashville and for Huntsville, AL. So all the dealers in those areas got my information and started calling me within the hour. We picked Huntsville because we were getting a quote that was about $2,000 less than anywhere else.
I got a call pretty early from a dealer in Scottsboro, AL (about 45 minutes east of Huntsville) which was the one with the best TrueCar price. He had a Sienna in the color we wanted (Predawn Gray Mica with light gray leather interior). It had a few options we didn't really need (like remote start and crossbar), but the price was still amazing. He gave us a reasonable offer for my RAV4 as a trade-in and then even offered to deliver the car to our house. I wondered why he was giving us such a good deal and he said he is at a small dealership in a small town and wasn't going to be able to sell that type of minivan. I told him we needed a few hours to think about and he didn't give me any normal salesman hassle.
I spent the next few hours talking to and emailing all sorts of salesmen at different dealers and trying to get their best prices. I give a few of them the quote I had to see if they could compete. One guy told me to break the speed limit getting to that deal and another essentially threw a hissy fit ranting about other dealerships and their messed up practices, etc, etc. Over lunch Brian took the RAV4 to Carmax to see what they would offer us (which was a little more but when you factored in not having to pay sales tax on the trade-in amount and the cost of driving to Alabama since the free delivery required a trade-in, it was almost a wash).
So just after lunch we committed to the dealer in Scottsboro. It was a little scary considered I only spoke with the salesman for about a total of 10 minutes over a few phone calls. But we set up for their driver to meet us at Brian's office yesterday at 12:30 pm with the new car.
Amazingly, it all went smoothly. We signed all the paperwork in the parking lot. There were no surprises with the numbers and we wrote a check for the car since we were paying cash. After about 30 minutes, the driver left with our RAV4 and we had our new Sienna! It was a quick and painless process and I really feel like we got a good deal.
Now I just have to convince these two that they don't have to snack while in the car :)
I think this guy is already comfortable in the new car :)
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