It had been twenty-one years since The Escape Pod came into my life, but now it’s time to let her go. After hurting my back a few years ago, it became more and more difficult to drive her, getting stuck in traffic with the clutch was unbearable, and working on her myself has become problematic. It took more than one difficulty, and a very long time, for me to give up The Pod.
Not being really up for the confusing process and challenge of buying a new-to-me van is putting it lightly, but when funding finally came through, the search began in earnest. There were a few pragmatic requirements on my list of things that were required in a new-er van – it needed to have an automatic transmission, roomier in the cargo area than my VW, have enough power to go up and down mountains, be fairly reliable and must be a brand that could provide easily found parts and mechanics.
Sitting for quite a long time with my eyes roving to newer models of Ford Transits and Dodge Promasters – I was visualizing myself in vans that I could stand up in. But alas, my newly found funding did not include their price range and there was no way that going into debt (ie: payments) were an option. My second choice was something in the range of a smaller, generic, affordable, cargo van, like the ones you see running around all over town as delivery or work vans.
The search began looking primarily at the Ford Econoline vans, and then the decision was made to focus on looking for an E250 so that there would be some room in the back even though I’d still be crouching, and some travel power. It was a hard decision at first. When it comes to vans, my heart belongs to VW buses. Changing brands was going to be heartbreaking.
Then I encountered my first problem.
No one would return my calls or my emails. Craigslist and CarGurus were my go-to resources and there were quite a few for sale, but most were sitting outside my public transportation commute range for going to see them. Being able to talk to a dealer about what was actually for sale on any given car lot was paramount.
It was frustrating as fuck.
At one point I made the decision to stop looking and sat down and just asked my Universe to send me the right van and the right person to buy it from. Someone who was going to give me a fair deal and treat me like a human.
A few days later that person sent me a text message.
T. made the process of looking and test driving easy, gave me no pressure whatsoever to make a purchase and answered my many questions more than one time each with patience. He even took all of the metal shelving out of the van for me and saved me the pain of doing so.
It took about two weeks and a lot of anxiety attacks to make the decision to purchase this tank of a van. But now I have it and a new life has begun.
* * * * *
I bought the van from a dealer named Toby in Fremont, California. His company name is Kool Cars.