Snazzy....for a MINI-VAN!

I will never forget the frantic, excited, borderline hysterical letter my Mom sent me when she got her "new" van. This was almost four years ago, so it was new-ER than it is now, but not brand, spanking, right-off-the-floor new, but, nevertheless, it was the newest thing she had ever owned, and I had *never* heard my totally non-materialistic Mom sound so darn happy about a car. I am sure she could see my eyes rolling as she called me to tell me about the glorious van. "But Erin," she insisted, "It has *TWO* sun roofs, drink holders, it is COOL! Did I mention the drink holders honey?" I allowed her to bask in her glory of her new wheels, but I really did not care until I arrived home and *saw* the van. Hey! It WAS pretty cool. If you squinted from a few feet away you could barely even tell it was a Mom-ified VAN.

The Toyota Previa has served our family well. There are five of us "kids," and we are BIG kids now. My brother is over six feet tall! But this mini-van is one of the roomiest I have been in, and all seven of us can fit without fairly comfortably without becoming too entangled in a sea of Nike adorned legs. The van we have has two bucket seats in the front (which recline to an almost horizontal position, much to the dismay of the middle passengers), a bench seat that sits two adults comfortably, and a back bench seat that sits three not so comfortably. That nasty middle seat in the back was a particular treat on long vacations ;)

I learned to drive with this van, as did my subsequent sister and brother. Poor van. It has survived several wrecks (NONE of which were *MY* fault...I swear!), and we all survived too, so I guess the van gets extra brownie points for not crumpling during the high speed <5 MPH> collision with a pole in the parking lot <g>. Thank God my parents have good insurance. The van is no worse for the wear, and has held up remarkably well after being sideswiped, bashed, crashed, dinged, pinged, and scraped. The next sister in line to drive gets to learn on the Honda :P

Being able to endure all of these minor (and major) accidents is proof that this van is of excellent quality. Throughout the five or so years we have had the van we have had minimal mechanical problems, aside from those which were self-inflicted. The starter went out once, and we have an odd wiring problem which makes it so the music can only be heard from one set of speakers. Neither have been anything huge, and my Mom bought the extended warranty, so they were fixed by the all too familiar Toyota people free of charge. The van gets fairly good gas mileage, does great on family vacations, and is a very smooth ride. It only has a four cylinder engine so it certainly does not go from 0 to 80 in 6.5 seconds, but with a little encouragement and coddling, it goes the speed limit ;)

Some of the snazzier features: two sunroofs, one above the driver and shotgun, and one over the second row. The latter is bigger, and actually opens all the way up. They are great for night driving...star gazing from a mini-van, who would have ever thought that would be possible? Cupholders in the front of the van, and in the back, are wonderful. Not having somewhere to put my morning mocha? I am so sho! The back row of seats also does this nifty trick where they "unsnap" in the middle, and the two sides can be pinned to either side of the van. This leaves a huge back area for transporting things, etc. The middle seats can also be removed if you need more space. It also has power steering, locks, and windows, cruise control, and a decent radio. Nothing my 16 year old brother would brag about, but he is hard to please anyway ;).

All in all, this is an excellent family car. It lacks some of the features that some of the newer vans have (ie. two sliding doors, TV/VCR), but it still fulfills all of our family and travel needs. And it looks cool picking kids up from school *and* cruising down Jefferson Street (a MAJOR bonus in my town).