It's not ALL about that 'new car smell'...

If you’ve happened to see me over the last couple of weeks, toodling around town, you may have noticed that I’m in a NEW CAR!


And I HATE it.


I want my van back… yesterday, if not sooner.

Fortunately, I can return the Camry, which is not actually mine, but is on loan from the dealership. My mini-van, which officially became MINE at the beginning of February with one last check sent to Toyota Financing, started flashing the ‘airbag’ light about 10 minutes after the check was signed and mailed.

And so I became concerned.

Not so much that my airbag might NOT deploy when needed, but more that it would deploy when I needed it least… like driving down the interstate, rocking out to Billy Idol’s “White Wedding”, while my kids yelled in the back, “WHAT are we LISTENING to??!” That would be bad. (The airbag, not my children’s lack of taste in music.)

Turns out that it is the undercarriage of the seats with the weight sensors that is faulty. And turns out that they’ve had this problem before. Turns out, even, that there is another van owner that has been waiting since OCTOBER for the necessary part to fix it.

For this reason, my husband went all ‘angry/quiet/calm’ at the dealership, and they opted to loan us the brand-new Camry to get us through until our van could be fixed. And did I mention that it is BRAND-NEW?? It even had that new car smell. And I use the past tense… ‘had’… because after almost a month, it’s ‘Lost that Lovin’ Feeling’.

The five of us in a Camry? Bad news. This car is too small for a family of five. Five river otters, maybe, but not the five of us.

The kids are too dang close to one another, and unfortunately they can look at and touch each other. Know how I know? Because they like to scream from the backseat, “MOOOOM! HE'S LOOKING AT ME!!!" or... "QUIT TOUCHING ME!!”

And we’ve been spending a lot of time in the car together recently, making trips to Salado to see family, and then this last weekend, we went to Corpus Christi for a twirling competition. Even the kids are ‘over’ the novelty of the new vehicle, and are bemoaning the lack of a drop-down DVD player and their very own cup-holders. (Dear Drop-down DVD player with headphones, I think I miss YOU most of all.)


But the good news? The part has arrived!


Bad news? Our local Toyota technicians are not trained on how to replace this part.


But the good news… They are sending technicians from the manufacturing plant to train the local technicians!


Bad news… Not sure when exactly that will happen.


Good news… They will be replacing the part in our van, as part of the training module!


Bad news… On the off chance that they make a training video of this technique, everyone affiliated with Toyota service will get to see the hot mess that is my van.


Potential good news??… Is it too much to hope that Toyota will clean my van for me so that it can have its moment in the spotlight before it is returned to its humble abode (our garage)?



Because Lord knows, I’ve got some work to do on that loaner car before I take it back.