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Apr. 27th, 2008 10:09 pmSaturday I had scheduled the state safety inspection for my van. So naturally Friday morning during my drive to work, I caught a rock with my windshield which left a half-dollar sized divot nearly dead-center. I already knew that I was behind on the 15,000 mile inspection; what I didn't know is that the dealer charges $167 for it, because they clean the brakes, adjust the transmission, and do some other things of dubious value as well the usual checks of belts and hoses and and the air pollution stuff.
What I also didn't know is that both my front tires were shot due to the front-end being unaligned at the toe enough to wear the edges of the tread unevenly. The mechanic at the dealer pointed that out when I asked him to look at the divot, to see if it was worth doing the inspection. This brought my potential expense to nearly $800, and they'd not even gotten the van on the rack yet.
In looking for alternatives, I asked what sort of deals they had going. They were doing rather large rebates on 2008 models; the Sedona had rebates of $7,500 that I qualified for as a current Sedona owner. Unfortunately, they also raised the price of the Sedonas a couple of grand, which was enough to make the numbers not work.
However, they had an '08 Sedona that had been a demonstrator. It had not quite 12,000 miles on it and was selling for less than than my 06 was. It's essentially the same vehicle. The biggest changes were that they made the center seats smaller, and they moved the attachment point for the should belt for the center seat for the rear bench all the way the to back corner of the ceiling on the driver's side. It's distracting when looking through the rear-view mirror, but I suppose every design decision has its trade-offs. They also eliminated the convenience hook from the passenger-side center console. It's silly, but I was very disappointed when I discovered that because I would hang one of my CD cases on it. I'm glad that I didn't discover that until after I bought it.
There were a couple of other changes that were clearly done for cost purposes. The cloth on the seats is noticeably thinner. The sun visors are different. The textured, non-skid bottoms of the cup holders are now just regular vinyl. There are storage pockets on the backs of the fronts seats that they made so thin that I'm going to have to be careful what I (and the kids) put in there so they don't rip. All minor but annoying changes. It's also missing the cigarette lighter, which I find to be a safety problem and will ask them to replace it tomorrow morning.
And it's red. Dark red, not bright, sports car red. Once I get the old plates on it, I'll have pics.
What I also didn't know is that both my front tires were shot due to the front-end being unaligned at the toe enough to wear the edges of the tread unevenly. The mechanic at the dealer pointed that out when I asked him to look at the divot, to see if it was worth doing the inspection. This brought my potential expense to nearly $800, and they'd not even gotten the van on the rack yet.
In looking for alternatives, I asked what sort of deals they had going. They were doing rather large rebates on 2008 models; the Sedona had rebates of $7,500 that I qualified for as a current Sedona owner. Unfortunately, they also raised the price of the Sedonas a couple of grand, which was enough to make the numbers not work.
However, they had an '08 Sedona that had been a demonstrator. It had not quite 12,000 miles on it and was selling for less than than my 06 was. It's essentially the same vehicle. The biggest changes were that they made the center seats smaller, and they moved the attachment point for the should belt for the center seat for the rear bench all the way the to back corner of the ceiling on the driver's side. It's distracting when looking through the rear-view mirror, but I suppose every design decision has its trade-offs. They also eliminated the convenience hook from the passenger-side center console. It's silly, but I was very disappointed when I discovered that because I would hang one of my CD cases on it. I'm glad that I didn't discover that until after I bought it.
There were a couple of other changes that were clearly done for cost purposes. The cloth on the seats is noticeably thinner. The sun visors are different. The textured, non-skid bottoms of the cup holders are now just regular vinyl. There are storage pockets on the backs of the fronts seats that they made so thin that I'm going to have to be careful what I (and the kids) put in there so they don't rip. All minor but annoying changes. It's also missing the cigarette lighter, which I find to be a safety problem and will ask them to replace it tomorrow morning.
And it's red. Dark red, not bright, sports car red. Once I get the old plates on it, I'll have pics.
