Hey guys,
As some of you may know my 04 Suburban has been troublesome for about a year now. Always started, and only stranded me twice in that time, but it was starting to nickel and dime me a lot. We had been thinking about replacing it about a year ago anyway, and the troubles accelerated things.
Last week I traded it in on a new 2017 4Runner TRD Off-Road. Now that is the wife's new car after driving her Sienna for the past 10.5 years. The 4Runner will be her daily, and the tow vehicle for our camper on the few occasions we use it.
I'm not going to lie and say I don't want the 4Runner for myself, but right now I'm at peace with where we are in life as far as vehicles go.
I'm now driving the Sienna as a daily, and after setting it up with all of my crap, I must say this thing is an awesome car! I've always liked it when driving it which was not often, but almost always when we took a long trip. It has been a flawless car in the 10.5 years of ownership. The wife and kids haven't been nice to the interior, but it isn't horrible. It is a minivan after all. I spent a few hours over the past week here and there washing it, and vacuuming/ scrubbing the interior. I even went as far as cleaning the inner reaches of the body where the lift gate hinges are, and the sliding door crevasses, door jambs, etc...
I took it to play hockey last night, and it holds the hockey bag and sticks just as well as the Suburban, but is smoother, and gets better mileage. I look a whole lot more dorky behind the wheel, but really at this point what am I holding on to anyway? It is amazingly quiet to drive. I do miss the V8 power at times, and some of the little things like the stereo telling me the name of the artist, and song title, but I can live without that. The interior is like a vault in the Sienna compared to the Suburban. The Suburban felt a lot more rugged, but of course it will, as it is a truck compared to a car with a big box.
Going from driving a Ram 250 Cummins diesel 5-speed, to a Ram 1500 Hemi quad cab, to a full sized Ram passenger van, to the Suburban, and then to this is a huge change, but one that I really like so far. Would I still like to get my hands on a 98-99 full sized Montero? Of course, but the Sienna is paid for, runs/drives excellent, and is only a cool flame paint job away from being super cool. Right? Well probably not, but I still have the Delica to look cool in(probably still dorky), or the REPU(look like Magilla Gorilla in that one), or possibly the RX-7 (well maybe I do look cool in that, but I haven't driven it in a long time).
Ahh whatever, I drive a Minivan, and I like it. at least until I find something else cooler. Probably not, one car payment is too much let alone two. Anyone want to go to soccer practice?