Car Traumas!!!

I should start this story by saying that this is the second time this has happened with my car. The first time was in December and resulted in Jeromy, Abigail, and I arriving late to Elena's school Christmas program. I have had other problems with the doors of my van since we leased it a year ago. Usually, they just bounce open and I come outside to find my doors open (this is really nice when you have been in a store for a while).

Last Saturday was Laura's baby shower (There are no pictures because I forgot my camera) and we had a lot to do. We had decorated on Friday night but there were a few more things that we had to accomplish on Saturday morning. We had agreed to meet at the church at 10 a.m. Since I had the key, I had to be on time.

Jeromy had worked the night before, so Abigail and I had spent the night at Mom's house. This way we could get ready with out disturbing Jeromy. We decided to take my car to the shower and that we would need to leave by 9:40 if we were going to get there in time (we had to stop to get some ice). At 9:30, I began to load up the car. At 9:40, Mom, Elena, Abigail, and I climbed in. That is when the trauma began...

I hit the button to automatically shut the door where Elena was sitting and then climbed in myself. As I was shutting my door, Elena informed me that her door was still open. Now, quite often my doors will just bounce open after being shut. But, this was not the case this time. The door had shut, but was still "propped" open. So, I get out and try to push the button again. This time it doesn't make an effort to close. So, I try to close it manually. Still nothing. I then threw my entire body into shutting the door. It worked. So, I climbed back into my car and backed out of Mom's driveway. We started to move down the road and the door popped back open. I climbed out again and tried to slam it shut again. This time it did not work. Now, we did not have time to go back and change cars and we still needed to get ice.

We moved Elena to the back of the van and Mom climbed into her seat to hold the door shut. As we drove she called around until she found someone to pick up the ice. We finally made it to the church with Mom holding the door shut. After unloading the car, I once again slammed the door shut and went to park it. This time the door stayed shut on its own. I went inside and called the dealership. They could not get me in until Monday. So, I scheduled an appointment for then. I also called the dealer that Jeromy and I work with and left a message about the car.

So, on Monday, Jeromy and I headed out to the dealership for them to "fix" my car. I know this is getting long so I will quickly sum up what happened. Essentially, they did not fix my car. They said that when the car is too cold the door thinks something is in the way and will not close. So, they took my car into their garage to warm up and now it works (I should say, that on Monday the door was mysteriously working again anyways). I asked if it could happen again and they said yes if the car was too cold. Now I'm annoyed. Does every Grand Caravan have this issue? If so, they must not sell them in colder climates. Our dealer is looking into getting me a new van. He is not sure what he can do, but he is hoping to get me out of my lease and into a new one. Julie is hoping for a "Call for Action" piece on the news. We'll see what happens. Jeromy is calling tomorrow to check on the progress.