I can’t believe we own a minivan. A MINIVAN.

But of course it wasn’t easy. 🙂

Tom went for the test drive at 8:30am and long story short, that one wasn’t the car. So I was researching cars at home and texting him info—the dealership had a few other Siennas on the lot so he was test driving those as well. In the end, we decided that we were going back to a FWD instead of an AWD because there were a lot more 2012 FWD cars available to choose from. (We’d still have preferred AWD, but figured for the few times we’d really need it—the few times it snows that bad here, I just don’t go anywhere and for the once every year or two that we go to Michigan in the winter—it just wasn’t worth it to spend the extra money.)

On a whim, I had Tom look at a 2014 because, well, why not? A 2012 was cheaper, obviously, but it was already four years old. There happened to be a 2014—loaded, even!—for CHEAPER than the one we had looked at (and had been interested in) last night! And Tom said it was REALLY nice. And it had super low miles—about 6,700! (The lady had bought it new and decided she wanted an AWD!)

There were no crazy addon fees so out the door (and with our trade-in) it was still less than the 2012 we walked out on! YAY!

After a family test drive back to the dealer (they royally screwed up our address so had to redo the paperwork plus we had to give them the second key and pick up our floor mats), these are the major bonuses we’ve noticed thus far:

1. I don’t have to duck to get in the car. Plus? The driver’s seat AUTOMATICALLY reverses when you turn the car off to allow more room to exit (and then renter). It freaked me out the first few times and I thought it was stupid. Now I love it.
2. Maybe most importantly—and one of my absolute requirements for the new car—was the rear backup sensors/alerts (the Acadia had them and the Mazda didn’t and it drove me insane since I’m horrible at backing up). The Sienna has front, rear, AND side sensors—and they’re amazing!! (Of course it also has the parking assist lines which are cool but will take some getting used to.)
3. The lift gate opens more easily via the remote…AND you don’t have to unlock it first! (I was used to that with the Acadia then the Mazda didn’t do it and it frustrated me endlessly!)
4. The doors automatically unlock and lock more easily with the smart remote (the Mazda was a crapshoot if it would work nicely or at all).
5. There’s a button to fold in the side mirrors. What what?! As someone who can’t judge distances well and is paranoid about hitting the mirrors at drive-up windows—and as such usually ends up having to open the door to reach—this is a total win. 😀
6. The bluetooth sync works much, much better. In the Mazda, it seemed like my phone rarely automatically connected and you could either listen to XM or your phones’ directions but not both at the same time (but sometimes it would work…?!). This car does it seamlessly and perfectly. I was also able to transfer ALL my contacts to the car in about 30 seconds with one button press.
7. The navigation is amazingly better. It’s not just newer with better map info, but it has more POIs and it’s much quicker to find something. It’s not perfect but I know I’ll use it more than we did the Mazda.
8. The kids are BIG fans of the DVD player.
9. The floor protector we had for the Highlander—that we moved to the Acadia and then the Mazda even though it wasn’t a good fit—fits nicely (even though it’s the wrong color).

The only meh thing so far is there’s no good place for my magnetic phone mount. I haven’t tried the CD changer spot yet (which was recommended for the Mazda and worked well) because I don’t think I want to cover up the touch screen this time. It fits in the slide out cup holder, but it’s too low to be useful for navigation. But that’s minor.

So overall we’re very happy. Of course we don’t like the bigger payment (we’re back up to what we were paying before we downsized to the Mazda) but it is what it is. 🙂