Our new ride :)

We did it. We bit the bullet and "bought" a new car.  The VW Passat was good to us.  It got us through grad school which is all we ever asked for.  After being in the repair shop twice and getting a pretty bad diagnosis last time, we decided we needed to sell it before it wouldn't go anymore.  Carmax to the rescue again!  So, we actually sold it before coming down to Florida and we knew we needed to get a car with a third row or a minivan to accommodate our "party of five" on the way back to SC.  We just didn't know if we would buy in Florida or in SC.  We narrowed down our search to two SUV's, the Chevy Traverse and the Dodge Durango and ended up with the Durango.  It has captain chairs just like a minivan and an adult size third row so it's very similar to a minivan interior.  The only difference is that it sits higher off the ground and the storage in the back is not as deep into the floor as a minivan.

After negotiating with 3 dealers over emails, Nick was finally able to get a deal we didn't think was possible.
I hate dealing with car salespeople but this experience went over really, really well.  Tips for those who may be in the market in the future.
1.  Truecar.com is your best friend.  It shows you what other people have paid for cars at specific dealers so it shows you how much room there is to negotiate.
2.  Always deal with the internet sales people.  It's so much better to negotiate over emails- everything is in writing and they just cut the bullshit because they assume you are an educated buyer whereas when you go into a dealer they try to romance you with the car, features you may not initially want but they want you to love and the never ending "if I get you a good deal, will you buy today?" speeches.
3.  Always check with multiple dealers--for obvious reasons.

Nick ended up driving down Thursday night to close the deal on Friday morning and then he headed back to SC on Saturday at 4am.  All the paperwork was ready for us to sign at the dealer when we got there.  We took Gavin with us.  He was looking forward to going to the "car store" and on the way he kept asking if we were going to buy a red car.  We told him no and he said "maybe they'll have an orange car"--his two favorite colors of course.  We asked him if he liked gray cars and he said no.  Once we got to the dealer and pointed out the car, we asked him what he thought and he said "that one looks fast"--his other requirement. :)
He had fun climbing in and through it.  At first he didn't like the idea of being on the third row when we told him about it, but once he was in the car he liked it.  Although he keeps saying Liam should be next to him.  I know for sure on the way back to SC, we'll put both boys in the third row so I can sit in the middle and tend to all of them.  But I don't know if the boys on the third row will work out permanently.  We'll see.

For now we can just cross off something off the to-do before baby comes list.  I was afraid we weren't going to have a car to fit all of us in time.