Getting My New Car

The writing had been on the wall for a while that I would need a new van sooner rather than later. The trusty Toyota Sienna that I inherited from my dad when he passed away six years ago had a multitude developing minor issues. The sun roof leaked, so when it rained, water collected in the ceiling of the car and rained down onto the passengers every time we turned left for days to come. The heater only worked on the passenger side. The tire gauge hadn’t worked in years (Dad killed that one). The radio only picked up a handful of stations. It bore the scrapes, dents, and bruises of several drivers’ mishaps (but mostly Dad’s). But the straw that broke the metal’s back (so to speak) was when we found the battery dead nearly every time we went to use the van, even after we replaced it a week earlier. The dealer told us that the battery was fine (DUH) and the alternator was in good shape, and that any further diagnostics was going to cost more than I was willing to spend on a car that was ten years old and had 161,000 miles on it. And quite honestly, I had planned to budget for a new car at the end of the year anyway. It just turned out that I’d need to move my timetable up a bit. 

Getting a new car is a lot like getting a new wheelchair for me – complicated. I knew I wanted a van that accommodated my existing wheelchair lift. My Bruno lift loads my chair into the back portion of my van using hooks, brackets on the chair, and a remote control. Essentially, it takes very little physical strength to operate it, allowing nearly anyone to be able to successfully load my 400 pound wheelchair into my van. My mother’s van uses manual ramps, and it takes a decent amount of muscle and practice to be able to get the chair in and out. That is not what I wanted for the van I use every day with a bunch of different drivers. 

Only a handful of vans are able to be modified to fit the Bruno lift, so that narrowed my choices down significantly. Although I loved my Toyota, the Stow-N-Go seats offered by the Chrysler Pacifica sealed the deal. I love the fact that all of my back and middle seats fold into the floor, making packing for my art shows a gazillion times simpler. In case you’ve never seen, I bring A LOT of crap (between actual art and displays) with me when I do my in-home art shows, and fitting everything in my old van was always an issue. I wanted to make sure that problem would be solved with whatever I bought next. At the same time though, I wanted to make sure I still got decent gas mileage and a smooth ride, so a full size van was not optimal but not out of the question either. 

The fact that my mother had also bought a brand new Chrysler Pacifica a few months prior and LOVED it definitely helped me make a decision. I called the local company I’ve used to service my lift in the past as well as the Bruno manufacturer directly, just to make double, triple sure that this van was would work for everything I needed. After getting the go-ahead from both of them (and ordering the new parts for the lift, which was an out-of-pocket expense), Mom and I went to buy the first car that would ever be truly mine, debt at all. As luck would have it, there was a 2017 Chrysler Pacifica demo van on the lot with leather seats (a must with dogs) available and ready to go. It was even one of my top three color choices. Because it was a demo and already had 5,000 miles on it, the dealer gave me a fabulous offer, and even gave us more than we expected trade-in value for my old van. Even though it is still A LOT of money (way more than I’ve EVER spent at one time), I ended up getting a great deal and EXACTLY what I wanted. 

So, after a lot of coordination and phone calls gathering funds and working out logistics, Mom and I went after work one Tuesday night to sign my life away to a brand new vehicle. And man, it’s A LOT of signing! I felt like I signed as many papers as my parents did when they bought our house after Katrina. The next day, we had the lift removed from my old car and held at the place that does its service work until the parts came in to put it in the new van. It meant that I would be unable to use my van for about a week, but that was okay with me. If I really needed to go somewhere, we would just use Mom’s for the time being. I said goodbye to my trusty Toyota for the last time and sent my aide to the dealer to switch them out. 

Then the real complicated fun began. It turned out that, although I was assured by more than one person that it would be a piece of cake, switching the lift over to the new van was not as easy as it should have been. The opening of the back hatch is significantly smaller than that of my old Toyota, so getting my rather large chair in and out was quite a challenge. When my aide got home from picking up my van the first time from the company that switched the lift over (which, by the way, is not located anywhere near my house and is a royal pain to get to), we literally could not get the wheelchair out of the car. It was impossible. The worker that switched out the lift decided that it was okay that the wheelchair really didn’t fit and that it took someone who could lift 400 pounds over the bumper to load and unload the wheelchair in and out of the car. When my aide picked it up, he told her it was exactly the same (which it wasn’t) and so she did not think she needed a demonstration before she left. Had she asked for one, or thought she needed one, it would have been clear this was not a viable solution for me. I don’t know what planet this guy is from, but this situation was not okay under any circumstances. 

To make a long story short, after a lot of arguments (Mom kind of lost it on them the next morning), insisting, and trips back and forth from the repair place, the lift was finally adjusted to work with the van. (This took place over a ten day period in which I was unable to use my brand new, very expensive vehicle. I wasn’t thrilled.) It wasn’t perfect, it was super tight, and took a lot of patience, but it DID finally work. There were a few more adjustments we wanted made to the actual van to make things a bit easier, but because of liability issues, neither the accessible mobility service place or the dealer would do them for us. Luckily, we have a great friend who is a master at cars and electronics, and he not only re-installed my camera system, but also made the last few adjustments we needed to be able to get the wheelchair in and out without major trauma. 

Like a lot of things in my life, buying a new car was way more complicated than it should have been. I didn’t get to even use my van for ten days after I bought it due to the fact that the mechanics couldn’t get the lift right. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but let’s just say that this experience with these people has caused us to switch service companies from here on out. We were incredibly disappointed in the way they treated us and in their apparent incompetence. And then, to top it off, the dealer somehow forgot that I needed a handicapped license plate and gave me a regular one instead. I mean, HELLO??!!! I was just in there myself with my 400 pound wheelchair signing all of the paperwork for the car. Did you not think that maybe I needed a handicapped tag?? So, yeah, that was another week and a half and a headache to straighten out as well.

But… I do LOVE my new car. Everyone who drives it loves it. Nothing leaks, everything works, and it gets great gas mileage. My friend and I officially broke it in on a trip to see Sugarland in concert for the first time in six years in North Carolina. It was comfortable for both of us and is proving to be a great investment (even though making that note every month is a killer). For anyone who might be considering buying a minivan, I’d highly recommend the Chrysler Pacifica!