Car Shopping

But before we get into that, I got an email that my new start date is Tues, April 8.  One more day to get my act together!

I also finally remembered, just before starting this post, that I needed to email my references and update them on the job situation.

So, OK -- onto cars!

As I think I've mentioned before, my job is not in Snow City, but in its sister city across the river, Coldtown.  There are buses that go between the two cities, but to get to my job in a residential neighborhood would require 2-3 buses and about an hour.  Perhaps the one hour commute wouldn't be so bad, but the idea of having 2-3 chances to miss the bus or the bus to run late and make me late for work just sounds terrible.  So I need to get a car to make this workable.

I haven't driven for more than about 15 minutes since we moved to Snow City coming on 3 years ago.  After my experience driving Robert's car (a hatchback) with its completely terrible visibility, my dad's discussion of the various safety technologies available, my impressively bad sense of direction, and this never-ending winter, it was not difficult to generate a list of requirements for a car:

* Four wheel or all wheel drive
* Navigation package
* Good visibility and/or (preferably and) blind spot detection
* The other driver assistance technologies (e.g., lane warning, rear view camera)
* Relatively small size (preferably a compact)

It is kind of amazing how difficult it is to get all those things in one car.

Almost all of the lower-price compact cars (the whole Honda Civic class) were out of contention because they don't have the blind spot detection or any of the other driver assist technologies and because they did not (if I recall correctly) have an AWD option.  The Subaru Impreza at least is reputed to have good visibility and comes with AWD standard, so it went on the list of cars to test drive.

Almost all of the lower-price midsized cars (the whole Honda Accord class) were out of contention because they do not offer an AWD option, though they did tend to have blind spot detection, etc.  However, the Ford Fusion does have the AWD option, so it also went on the list (despite being on the large size of the midsized car range).

There are several compact to midsized SUV/crossover vehicles that fit all my requirements except for not being, you know, a normal car.  Several went on the list, despite both me and Robert having doubts about my interest in this type of vehicle.

Once you get up into the luxury car lines, you get better (if obviously more expensive) options, and several of them went on the list.

The total list had 12 cars/SUVs on it.

On Saturday, Robert and I went car shopping so I could sit in and test drive some of these bad boys.  I chose to start with the two least expensive brands -- Ford and Subaru.

At the Ford dealership, I was able to narrow my interests, just from sitting in the cars, to the Ford Fusion.  I did not have high hopes for it because I do not like at all the way Robert's Ford drives -- there is a weird lagging when you hit the gas or brakes that was disconcerting.  As the sales guy explained, that's because it uses a dual clutch transmission to improve fuel efficiency.  The Ford Fusion I drove had a 2.0L engine, and it seemed OK in terms of power and responsiveness.  But the most striking thing about it was the ride -- very surprisingly smooth, like you're just gliding over the street instead of driving on it.  It did not drive big for me the way it (or its predecessor) did for Robert a couple years ago -- it was actually a really nice car to drive overall.  I thought it was rather pretty on the outside (the inside is very basic), too.  My basic take on it was that (aside from the size potentially making parking in our underground parking garage a bit difficult) it was a quite a decent car that I would be satisfied with.  All in all, a good first car to set a standard for comparison.  (Other than the Subarus, it was also the cheapest car on my list.)

At the Subaru dealership, I tried the Impreza first.  Yes, the visibility was good, just like in my late lamented 1997 Nissan Sentra.  Unfortunately, it drove in every other way pretty much like my 1997 Sentra, too.  Which is to say:  I could drive such a car, but I don't want to, and I really don't want to pay over $20,000 for the privilege.  Next we tried the Forester, an SUV/crossover which the sales guy was enthusiastic about (by his standards).  I cannot even remember the details well enough to describe the myraid ways in which I detested this vehicle.  Yes, it had good visibility, but it otherwise sucked to drive.  I do specifically remember feeling like I was in a 1930's movie in which our protagonist is acting out the fake-driving by twisting a huge steering wheel dramatically this way and that -- I could not believe how loose (is that the term?) the steering was.  It was so bad that I pulled into a church parking lot and let the sales guy drive it back.  Subaru = major FAIL.  This was too bad because these were the least expensive cars and the brand Subaru is by a large margin the most fun to say out loud.  (It is an amazingly satisfying set of vowels and consonants -- it has that same pattern that makes Maru's name so fun to say.)

At the Mercedes dealership, I quickly discovered that the new CLA is a no-go -- the swooshy coupe styling is not compatible with comfortably looking outside the car.  But I did test drive the C class (compact).  And it drove every bit as smoothly and comfortably as the Ford Fusion.  It really didn't feel like driving at all -- and that wasn't so bad for me, because I'm not much of a driver.  Unfortunately, with the V6 engine, this smooth ride meant that it was extremely easy to drive way too fast and not realize it -- as my dad put it, the "lack of tactile feedback" was problematic.  I also did not care for the interior of the car.  The one we looked at on the showroom floor was particularly hideous -- I swear that the Mercedes symbol in the middle of the steering wheel was 6" in diameter.  The one I test drove was a little better, but overall, I did not really care for how ostentatious it was about being a Mercedes.  (It had that flashy Rolex kind of luxury thing going that is not to my taste.)  This all being said, it was a really a nice car.  I just was having difficulty accepting the idea that it was $15,000 - $20,000 better than the Ford Fusion (even assuming superior quality in all kinds of ways that are not immediately noticeable).

By this point, it was almost 2:00, so we stopped for lunch.  Over lunch, I was like, OK, let's check out the BMW but that needs to be our last stop of the day.  I was feeling pretty wiped out.

But seeing the thing of beauty that is the BMW 328ix in red with the brown-and-black leather and wood trim got me pretty excited.  This particular car was fitted out with all the packages that I wanted (blind spot detection and all the other driver assist techs, navigation, winter package, etc.)  And it was fun to drive. 

And so I bought it. 

April Fool!  Do you really think I would spend that much money on a car?  My god, I don't even like driving, why do I need an ultimate driving machine?

Because if I'm going to be driving over an hour a day getting to and from work, it might as well be awesome.  I really did buy the car.  And with this purchase, I think we can say that Operation Cheap Ass has come to an end in a spectacular way.