Car adventure update…#2

Usually after learning your vehicle needs an engine overhaul your options are repair or replace but our situation is unique. Our US driving tour is supposed to only last from now to the first week in August and then 5-6 weeks in Oct/Nov. The rest of the time we’ll be traveling overseas (we hope) and had planned to store the Van for almost a year and pick it up when we get back the Summer of 2022. So once we get to November, not having a vehicle is ok and in some ways even preferred. But in the meantime we need transportation. We evaluated our options.

1. Repair the van by replacing the engine if they can – it’s a 2009 after all.
2. Sell it, wait to buy a new one until 2022 and rent a car for the ~9 weeks we’ll be in the US
3. Sell it and replace it now
4. Try to limp along with it as is

We got some majorly expensive estimates on repairing it and renting something until August. $6000-$7000 for option 1 or option 2 – yikes! That wasn’t in the budget. Neither was spending more than that on buying a replacement vehicle (in a hurry, in a tight market, with no home state to register it in and no jobs to qualify for a car loan). Also yikes.

So after a couple days thinking about it, option 4 it is. We’ll try to limp along with the Van at least until we leave for Central America in August. Our next solid plans are in Minnesota at the end of July and we don’t want to be late. So we’ve turned Jackson Hole, WY into a day trip rather than 3 days That’s disappointing but gives us shorter driving days and more cushion in case something goes wrong during that 1000 mile trek. We’ll rent a car for the Yellowstone/Grand Tetons portion and keep our fingers crossed. Oh, and keep our AAA card handy too.