The Crapmobile

Batman has the Batmobile.  Minivan Mom has the Crapmobile.  OK, so there's not really a superhero named “Minivan Mom” - it's really just me.  Be that as it may, I'm still trying to figure out how my car got so trashed after having kids.  I was never a neat freak, but still, I always managed to keep my car tidy.

In fairness, the minivan has definitely taken a beating that my previous cars never had to take.  Between kid barf, cat barf, coffee stains, ink stains, juice spills, mud, sand, snow, grass stains – you name it, the minivan has endured it. Whenever we go on a trip, we take the minivan; whenever we haul something to the dump, we use the minivan; whenever we do any kind of shopping, we bring the minivan.  The minivan is the multi-use, all purpose vehicle in our household.  We have definitely gotten our money's worth from this vehicle.

Even though it's 10 years old with a little over 135,000 miles on it, I have no plans to ditch the minivan just yet.  Why? Well, there are a few reasons:

1. I'm too cheap to buy a new car right now because I don't want to make car payments.  For what it's worth, the minivan is paid in full.
    
2. I'm too cheap to buy a used car.
    
3. I'm on a quest to see just how long the minivan can last before it dies completely.

The longer I put off buying a new car the more money I should have saved up when it finally comes time.  Theoretically at least that's how it should work. That doesn't mean that I'm not thinking about my next vehicle.  In all likelihood, it will be another minivan. Speaking of which, it's time to clean out the old one.