Car Shopping... The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

As some of you know, Leilani and I went on vacation back in April to New York City. To save money, and because I hate to fly if I don't have to, we chose to drive. About half way to NYC, I hit a rather large piece of tread with my car. I could immediately tell it had done some damage, but it seemed minor and since we were far from home, I just kept going. There was no body damage, but the car was no longer as smooth as before and over the last 2 months, more and more noises were popping up that made me uneasy. It became obvious we were due for a big repair bill in the near future. Combine that with the fact that I was about to hit 95,000 miles and I decided to start car shopping and possibly trade it in on something new.

Since it wasn't urgent that I make a trade, I took some time to really think out what type of vehicle I needed to best suit my needs and then what brand was best in that class. Here is the list I came up with of what I needed.

1. Gas mileage... At the moment, I work from home so it isn't as critical as it is to some people, but working in I.T. I know this can change at any time. If I did have to change jobs, odds are good I'd have to make the commute to Charlotte and gas mileage would be a BIG deal. Depending on what side of town I was driving to, my commute could be 50 - 75 miles each way. Also, we tend to take my car on vacations since Leilani has a fun, sporty convertible which means no room for luggage.

2. AWD or 4WD... Over the last year, I have really been getting back into shooting IDPA. The dirt roads into the gun clubs where the matches are held are very poorly maintained and driving them in my Nissan Altima was tough and probably contributing to how badly it was starting to drive.

3. iPod connectivity... I listen to my iPod almost 100% of the time when in my car so it was critical that I be able to connect my iPod to my car stereo easily.

4. Reliability... If my job stays the way it is, this will be a low mileage car so I'd like to keep it a long time. If not, I need something that can take the pounding of a long commute and heavy mileage. Either way, I wanted something made well and would last.

After a lot of thinking, I decided the vehicle type that would fit me best was a small SUV or crossover.

The first one I chose to look at and drive was a Nissan Rogue. Up until the incident with the tread, I had been happy with my current Nissan and I also thought the Rogue was the best looking vehicle in this class. Also, my Altima had push button start which I really liked and the Rogue was the only vehicle in its class that was in our price range that had this feature. However, after driving it and then doing some research on line, it got crossed off my list. The biggest issue I had when driving it was that the blind spot was HUGE. Compared to all the other vehicles I test drove later, it had the worst rear visibility by far. Also, when doing research online, I found way too many stories of electrical problems. I decided there were probably better choices for me and I'd just have to live with giving up the push button start feature.

I also really liked the looks of the new Nissan Juke. However, it is a small vehicle and I'm not a small guy. I just didn't fit in it so after sitting in it, I didn't even bother driving it.

All the research seemed to agree on the Top 5 for this class. They were the Chevy Equinox, GMC Terrain, Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V and Subaru Forester. In reality, the Equinox and Terrain are the same vehicle with different cosmetics so if one of those was my favorite, the choice between the two would just come down to which one I thought looked better.

The next night, I headed back out and drove the RAV4 and the CR-V. The RAV4 is a nice vehicle that seems well thought out and has lots of storage and head room. However, I just didn't like the way it felt when driving it. It was very "minivan-ish". Also, every time I've ever shopped at a Toyota dealer, the salesperson has managed to annoy me and this time was no exception. He spent so much time trying to pressure me into just buying now before even looking at the other vehicles on my list and trash talking the competition that he really turned me off.

Next up was the Honda CR-V. It is a nice vehicle as well and I really liked the salesperson at the Honda dealer much better. I went there to drive it expecting to just check it off the list, but instead I left with it at the top of my list so far. It drove very comfortable, but still had a tight enough steering and handling to not feel like a mini van. Also, there is no denying Honda's quality, but I wasn't ready to make a decision until I had driven the Equinox/Terrain and Forester.

On Saturday, Leilani was off work so she finally got to go with me. We drove down to Mooresville because the Subaru dealer local to us in Hickory closed early and we got a late start. We started at Randy Marion Chevrolet, looking at the Equinox. We had a hard time finding a salesperson at first because they were all with other customers, but after a few minutes, the fleet manager came out and helped us. He was a good salesman and was low pressure which is what I want in a car salesman. He explained the different trim levels and we decided to drive the LT1. The Equinox is very nice inside. The front feels like a cockpit and is nicely layed out. Also, the seats were the nicest of any of the ones I looked at. The only real complaint I had was that the acceleration was very sluggish. After the test drive, we told him we liked it, but we wanted to drive the Forester before deciding.

Since Randy Marion Subaru was just across the street and owned by the same person, he said he could sell on both lots and took us over there to take a look. We even got to take the Equinox with us to look at them side by side which we thought was very cool. The Forester's seats were not quite as nice and the Equinox, but they were still nice. The Forester also had a HUGE panoramic moon roof that we both really liked. As soon as I pulled it out into traffic, my decision was made. The acceleration on the Subaru was the best of any of them I had driven and it just felt right to me. It came with a lot of nice features like a USB port for the iPod, Bluetooth for the phone (Leilani really likes that because she was always fussing at me about holding the phone while driving), fog lights, cargo nets, cargo covers, etc... It also had reclining rear seats which I thought was nice for the rare occasion when we take other people with us.

The only thing left was to pick a color. We had driven the Marine Blue one, but Leilani didn't care for that shade of blue. I was fond of the Red but it wasn't a great shade either. In the end, the color we both liked the most was the Steel Silver and luckily, they had one in the showroom in the trim level we wanted. Here's a picture of my new Subaru...


So far, I love it!