Monday, December 04, 2006

Latest Addition to the Den of Chaos

Well.

It’s here.

In the driveway.

2007 Honda Odyssey.

We have dubbed it Homer.

Yes. We are that dorky.

After lengthy (two years worth) discussions, test driving and other freaking out, we finally went and bought the thing tonight.

Amazing how two years worth of longing, discussions and working through the numbers will suddenly become, “Sign here, here, there, here, initial, initial, and heeeeeere’s your key!!”

We got a better-than-expected trade-in for the old van. And I sniffled like a great big old baby. I do that. I get very attached to my vehicles. Please see ‘that dorky’ comment above. I will be taking Tylenol PM tonight, because otherwise I will be up all stinkin’ night with the oh my god what did I just DO?! feelings.

Farewell, Behemoth. You served us so very well. Thank you for getting us There and Back Again, safely, so many times. 127,305 miles, baby, and next to zero major repairs. I hate to let you go.

{{sniffle}} {calls self dork again, tells self to suck it up already}

GORY DETAILS TIME!!!!!

We went with the EX-L model, in silver with a darker leather interior (leather, ooooh, aaaaaah). We chose it over the Touring version for two reasons: $5,000, and eight seats. The touring ‘only’ seats seven. (Hey – when you’re a family of six, one crummy extra seat can become important.) We decided that over the next ten-fifteen years or so, we will be happier about the eighth seat than having an integrated GPS and rear-view camera thingee.

We got the rear DVD entertainment system – duh. While I don’t use it for ‘going to the supermarket’, it saves our bacon on those six hour plus drives to Grandma’s house.

We got heated front seats. My arthritic hip thanks me very much already for that. :)

It has the side curtain air bags, working seat belts (this is a great upgrade, IMHO), roll-cage reinforcement, anti-skidding traction detection thingees and upgraded steering / braking.

It also has more storage…listen. I’m going to tell you something right now. The engineer responsible for the Odyssey minivan?

Has. Children.

I’m serious. There is an incredible amount of storage in this thing. That was what edged it out over the Toyota Sienna for us – the fact that we could tuck away all manner of diapers, goldfish crackers, apple juice boxes and whatnot, within reach! But…not just any reach. Wee little fingers can’t get at it, so I won’t be hearing a sudden ‘crunch crunch crunch’ from the backseat half an hour before dinner.

It came with a six CD changer, dual climate control (what? I think 82 is a perfectly reasonable winter-time setting…), power front seats and sliding doors. I have entertained myself mightily already using the remote. Hee hee – open the left door. Close it. Open the right door. Open the left door…CLOSE BOTH OF THEM!!!!

BWA-HAHAHAHAHA! Hee hee. Snort.

Ahem.

Hours of entertainment. (See dorky references, above.)

There are things I still need to get used to. When the engine revs down, it turns on an ‘ECO’ light on the dash. This is apparently needed for people who don’t ‘feel’ their engine or something, who can’t just tell that the engine just dropped into an optimum cruising range for fuel efficiency. When it first came on I shrieked, “What is that light? That green light? Right there on the DASH?! What does it mean?!”

There are more buttons and whatnots for opening this, that and the other…and sometimes this button works, but if the locks are on or this other thing is off or something else isn’t just so, it doesn’t do anything but emit a high-pitched beeeeeeeeeeeep (which is apparently Homer’s way of saying, “Hey. Twit. Unlock the doors first.”)

It’s very exciting. It’s been a long, long time coming, and now that it’s here…well. I’m not sure I entirely believe the reality of it. (Ha. Just wait for the first car payment, babe, it’ll all be very, very real at that point…)

Welcome, Homer. I hope you’ll be happy hauling the Denizens from hither to yon for the next ten to fifteen years. We’ll try to take good care of you, see to it that spills on your seats and carpet are cleaned up more or less promptly and that you get all your oil changes and so forth on schedule.

Now please…stop beeping at me when I push the buttons. I understand simple refusal to work, I don’t need the high pitched whine added to the equation.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooo! new car smell! :o)
Congratulations!

buffi said...

::green with jealousy::

I have an '02 Odyssey. I love my DVD player and the automatic doors! How did I ever live with out automatic doors?!?

But I am so envious of all that storage. I can't yet justify a new van, but when Ican...

RM Kahn said...

You should put Homer on the license plate.

Jeanne said...

Yes, definitely! Homer on the license plate! I can totally relate to sobbing when bidding farewell to the old motor. I had a 1989 Mustang named Jasper. He (yes, he, this was most definitely a male car) took me all the way out to LA and back, and survived the traffic there. He got rear-ended I don't know how many times but never lost a bumper. His hood was a different red than the rest of him and a tad uneven because the one time I let my LA roommate drive my car for "five minutes, I just need hair bleach", she rear-ended a truck because she was too busy checking her lipstick in the mirror.

That car had personality plus. We parted ways in 1997 when he was traded for a Sunfire, and I felt terrible. So terrible, in fact, that I have yet to name the Sunfire and have felt disloyal ever since. When I worked for a used car dealer, I looked up my old Jasper in CarFax and found out where his last known address was. Yes. I considered doing a drive-by just to say hi, but somehow that just seemed too weird. ;-) (Even for me!)

Unknown said...

Very nice. I'm jealous of the new car smell, but it's going to be another 10 years before I can start thinking about replacing the CR-V.

I was reading a book on Japanese automakers vs. American ones (or 'why Detroit sucks') and it mentioned how the Odyssey was a real bust when they first brought it over from Japan. For one thing, the one sold in Asia has 4 regular car doors. So a group of Honda engineers flew to the States and parked in front of an elementary school while classes let out and started making notes.

So yes, either the designer has kids, or they watched a *lot* of parents.

21st Century Mom said...

AWESOME! I have a friend who has one of those and he lurvs it - a lot. I'm guessing you will grow to love yours, too.

Very Herodotus said...

Woo hooo!!!

One thing I discovered a couple of weeks ago about my year-old van:

if you click the unlock button on the remote twice, and then hold it down, it will roll down all the windows. I discovered this when BeanieBaby found my keys and was running around the house with them.

Anonymous said...

I'm with buffi--if you could see the state of Exeter (because my license plate is XTR) you'd know how much I think the Greeks rock and the Early English suck them. (I'm really tired now and think that's hilarious. Tomorrow, I'll be wondering what the joke was. #$%ing humanites degree...)

Anonymous said...

But seriously--congratulations...that's so awesome:-)