Flashback to 2025: The Car Situation

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When 2025 began, we had the use of three cars. 

I had my blue van, a 2007 Toyota Sienna that we had owned since March of 2017. This is the car that Peter was driving when he had an accident last February. It had 108,000 miles on it when we bought it and only had about 180,000 at the time of its final accident.

As mentioned in the blog about the accident, we bought Uncle Carl, a 2014 Toyota Corolla with 271,000 miles on it to replace the van.

Uncle Carl

We had Scotty, Steven's white 2007 Toyota Highlander which we bought in September of 2018 after he was rear-ended in an accident. It had 254,000 miles on it when we bought it, and has about 315,000 on it now.

Scotty

We also had the use of Hannah's car while she was in Portugal. 

A note about Hannah's car: When she came home from her mission in 2020, her grandma Kathy gave her a silver Honda Fit as a gift, which Hannah named Jimmy Carter. (Think Gym-y CARter. You go to the gym to get FIT and it's a car; the name of the car had nothing to do with politics.) When Hannah moved to Portugal in 2024, she left Jimmy with us. John drove it to school and back when he attended MINES. After he graduated, Peter drove it to classes at the community college. In September of 2024, Peter was driving home from school when another car tried to merge into him. Peter was fine, but there was so much damage to the car that it was declared totaled. (Which was one reason why Peter was so distraught when he totaled a second car less than six months later.) 

To replace Jimmy, Steven and I used the insurance money to buy a 2011 Hyundai Tucson (which we call Tuck-son) with 176,000 miles on it.  This is the car that we gave (back) to Hannah when she returned to the States.

Meanwhile, Scotty (The 2007 Highlander) is having trouble. The battery started draining extra fast and needing to be jumpstarted constantly and mechanics weren't (still aren't) able to figure out why. The poor car is showing its age and is reaching the point where we wonder if it is worth repairing. When Steven started his new job, we knew we needed to get him a reliable car to drive to work. 

So... in November of 2025 we bought Great Scott!, a 2018 Toyota Highlander with less than 85,000 miles on it. This is definitely the fanciest car we've ever owned. It has some magic technology so Steven can lock and unlock it, and even start it with the push of a button without ever taking the key out of his pocket! 

Scotty (left) and Great Scott! (right)
We still have Scotty, but because it isn't completely reliable (and because it need the shocks or struts or something replaced, it is super noisy and sounds like it is about to fall apart any moment) we only drive it when we need three cars, and then whoever is going the shortest distance gets to take Scotty. So I take Scotty to church on Sundays since the boys attend church in Arvada (a 1/2 hour drive away), and Peter takes it to work on days when I need the car in the afternoon. Otherwise the boys and I use Uncle Carl and Steven has Great Scott! to get him to work and back. 

I am grateful that over the past year, as our cars have been in and out of repair shops and as we've had to replace cars, that we've always been able to figure out a way to get where we needed to go. I'm grateful to friends who gave me rides to church before Josh moved into our ward, and I'm grateful that Josh and his wife have been willing to give me rides to and/or from church when I've needed them. (Sundays are the days we most need three working cars!) I am also grateful that I've had opportunities recently to give rides to others who have had car troubles and pay back some of the service that has been offered to me. 

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