How I ended up owning a minivan
Ahh the minivan. Ever since the popularity of the minivan grew it has long been associated with “soccer moms”. I remember growing up with a negative view on minivans and proclaimed to the world that I would never, ever be one of “those people”. When I talked about minivans it was almost like a scene from the TV show Corner Gas when they talk about their rival town, Wullerton. Yet, about 4 years ago, I found myself in a predicament where I was having to seriously consider buying a minivan.
When considering my options for a replacement vehicle I stepped back from my long held beliefs and stated my requirements – haul 3 children, the dog and all of our stuff. Not long before my search for a replacement vehicle started I had been driving a vehicle which, when looking back, was almost like a gateway drug to minivan ownership; a 2007 Ford Freestyle. It had been gift from my (then) wife’s dying father and met our needs as a growing family. I had recently traded the Freestyle for a 2014 Ford Edge, after the CVT transmission failed on the Freestyle.
I narrowed down my search to a few different vehicles including a minivan. This included several large and mid sized SUVs and the dreaded minivan. After test driving a Kia Sorento, Chevy Traverse and Ford Explorer I decided that I would try out a minivan. I felt that the mid sized SUVs didn’t provide enough cargo area with all 3 rows of seats up and the larger SUVs seemed like land yachts to me. My neighbour had a Dodge Grand Caravan that was well equipped and, after talking to him, I decided that a minivan was probably the way to go.
I decided that it couldn’t be a Grand Caravan, because they were everywhere. I also knew that an AWD Toyota Sienna was out of my price range. After some researching I decided to look at the Kia Sedona. I had recently seen a review of the Sedona posted by one of my favourite YouTubers, which pushed me to actually go look at one.
After going to the Kia dealer and looking at a few different ones, I was turned off of vans because they were so expensive brand new. New was out. I decided I’d go with a used one, but it couldn’t be very used. After several weeks of keeping my eyes on the dealer inventory in Saskatoon I found a 2016 Kia Sedona LX+ for sale with 30,000 km for about half of what the new vans were selling for. I went to the dealer after work to test drive it and decided it was the one for us. I went home, discussed it and then we went back to test drive it again and had the dealer look at the 2011 Chevy Cruze I was trading in. Within an hour I had signed the papers and it was ours.
Ever since then I have been a supporter of minivans and have told all of my friends and coworkers about why they should consider one for their growing families. In the end, the reality of owning a minivan was not nearly as bad as what I had imagined it to be. Once I got past the stigma that I had in my head about minivan ownership I have learned to love it.
My Kia Sedona has been great for my needs and my family. It has been on road trips to BC, camping trips, school runs and has been my daily driver for the past 2 years. My time with my van is likely coming to an end soon and I will be sad to see it go, but life goes on and I will remember my time with the minivan fondly.
