The new used car

Well, Pops, I did it. I bought the car which is going to replace that last car of yours. I should have replaced it six months, maybe a year ago, but I didn't, because it was the last car you bought. But I did run into the ground, as we Cosgriffs do. It will only get me scrap value. Hell, maybe not that much.

The new one is a 2000 Chevy Venture. By new, I mean two years younger than your Plymouth Voyager. And it also has 17,000 more miles than the vehicle it's replacing. So I'm replacing an old car with a vaguely newer one with significantly more miles. A newer car with more miles; I have to believe that you and Grandpa Joe are getting a kick out of that.

The Venture has heavy duty springs, what you used to call overloaders, if I remember rightly. That's part of what attracted me. With some of the loads we've had to carry I feel that's a real plus. It's a shorter van than your Voyager, but I figure I can pile more in it with those tougher springs. In fact, I think I could deliver some of those old Hobart welders we used to rent using this van. You guys like that, eh?

Her inaugural run will be Thursday, when I take a machine to Bad Axe up in the thumb. You remember Boom's Rental up there, right? We've dealt with them since the Seventies, as you know, and I'm sure you made that trip a few times dad. If that works well, and I believe it will, then next Tuesday I'll take it on about a 700 mile loop, from Detroit to the Electric Eel plant in Springfield, Ohio, to Indianapolis, then back to Eel for a load to bring back here to the D. In short, she's getting a baptism of fire.

You and Joe like that too I bet.