I bought that car for Braden as a surprise birthday present in 2003 (and when I say "bought", I mean "put down a small down payment"). We were living in Chicago at the time. Braden had gotten a 1998 Tahoe from his parents when he graduated from college. After moving to Chicago, we soon found out that it wasn't so practical for parallel parking in tight spots and it got like 9 miles per gallon in city driving. We tried to sell it, but go figure that no one in Chicago wants a 2 wheel-drive SUV. So my dad decided he would like it. We traded cars (and some money) and ended up with a Mercury Mystique. Not exactly Braden's dream car, but much more practical. Then in 2003 Braden started looking for coaching jobs and we knew we would probably move. So I took some of the money we had saved and went to test drive some cars (one weekend when I had the car and Braden was out of town). I didn't buy the car that day, but I settled on the Envoy and bought it a different day. I left work early one day and took the train and then the bus to the closest bus stop, then walked the remaining half mile to the dealership. Got a great deal on it, bought it, and did not drive it home. Instead I left it there for 2 weeks (to install sunroof and clean it and because it was my birthday in a few days and I wanted to wait until after my birthday). 2 weeks later my parents were in town, so they took me there to pick it up. It wasn't cleaned and had no sunroof, but I needed to pick it up that day....it was all part of my plan. So I got the sunroof for free and agreed to bring it back in a couple of days for install. In the meantime, it was time to give Braden his surprise.
I wrapped up the key and the window sticker and he was pretty surprised when he opened the gift.
We thought we'd have that car until the wheels fell off. Then we had 3 kids. In carseats.
Hopefully the next owner loves it as much as we did! Farewell Envoy!
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