2001-11-13 - 11:51 p.m.

Shopping For a New Car

Lily and I decided to go look at new cars yesterday. The trouble was: everyone else seemed to have the same idea! I'd forgotten that it was Veteran's Day and lots of people had the day off. At every car dealership we went to there were lots of people looking to buy new cars. Just like me, EVERYONE had heard that auto dealerships were desperate to sell, so EVERYONE was out buying, which sort of defeats the purpose...

I'd recently seen an article on the news that said that, on average, women spend 40 hours researching a new car while men spend only four. Well, when I heard that I wanted to uphold the honor of my sex and try to bring that average up a bit.

I spent a lot of time researching on line, and using the set of Consumer Reports magazines that I had at home.

Here's something irritating - to get most of the information out of the Consumer Reports website you have to subscribe to the site, even if you already subscribe to the magazine.

Anyway, first I had to figure out the kind of car I wanted. I finally settled on a compact SUV. I know, I know Mr. Middle-class-suburban guy finally gets the car he deserves. Actually, I needed something with more hauling room than the Little Red Wagon for my weekly comic book pick-ups at UPS. Xmas season is coming and that means the number of boxes every week is going to triple. Getting all those boxes to fit in my little hatchback is like trying to solve some tricky puzzle, and I know the week will come where I just can't carry all the boxes in one trip, no matter how cleverly I arrange them.

Also, I would like a car that is MEANT to haul stuff, the way the hatchback really isn't. Lifting heavy boxes over the lip of the trunk is a real pain, especially with my bad arm. Also, the back area is clearly inadequate for any continuous usage: underneath the carpet is nothing but beaver-board (!!) and it has, literally been pounded into sawdust by thousands of heavy comic boxes over the years. Something more sturdy is clearly needed.

But, I want a COMPACT SUV, the smallest size possible. Aside from the gas-mileage problem, I really don't want to have to drive a cumbersome truck. Also, I see how hard these huge SUVs are to park - while trolling through parking garages I'm constantly seeing these behemoths taking up one-and-a-half parking spaces. Screw that.

There are some other things I want: a nice sound system and air conditioning (finally!). Again, one of the good things about my present car is that anything else I get is going to be a VAST improvement over it. I can't lose!

So, looking through the list of compact SUVs, I settled on four that I wanted to try out: 1) The Honda CR-V, 2) The Subaru Forester, 3) The Mazda Tribute and 4) the Toyota RAV-4.

Well, in this patriotic era, you might notice that there are no American cars on that list. Saturn doesn't have a compact SUV and I don’t like Ford or GM. In fact, my dislike of GM is personal. My previous car before the Little Red Wagon was a Chevrolet, and it was a piece of shit. Furthermore, I was screwed by the Chevy dealership because I needed a car and they knew it. So, their bad customer service keeps paying negative dividends. I'll tell anyone: Chevrolet sucks! And especially don't buy a car from Salisbury Chevrolet! Tell them Uberhamster DIDN'T send you!

The four cars listed all scored high on the various web sites I visited, and in Consumer Reports, the only thing left to do was go out and see what the cars looked like in person, and how they drove.

One of the reason that I'd been dragging my feet previously, besides the fact I was generally depressed, is that I really do not like dealing with salesmen and bargaining for a car. There seem to be too many ways for them to outmaneuver me, and no matter what I do, I think I'm being taken advantage of. However, I tried to work on my attitude a bit, and decided that money was less important than getting the car I really wanted, so I resolved not too worry too much about the bottom line (within reason).

Also, the following cheery thought occurred to me: today I get to drive a bunch of cars that don't belong to me! For free, even!

I wanted to keep an open mind about the four cars, but I was already disposed toward either the Subaru or the Honda. I liked the Honda dealership near me, and the service department there had been very nice to me. However, there was also a Subaru dealership very nearby and so far I liked the 2001 Forester better than the 2001 CR-V. It looked like a very tough decision was ahead.

However, I didn't want to make any kind of decision without Lily along, so the two of us resolved to spend the entire day looking at cars and to make a decision that evening.

Our first stop was at a Toyota dealership to look at the RAV-4. I have to say, I was not terribly impressed. While the car looked jazzy and stylish, it seemed to have less hauling space than I needed. The salesman, whose name was Jerry (although Lily kept referring to him later as "Oscar") seemed jolly, but he didn't seem to know much about the car. For example, he couldn't seem to figure out how to put down the back seats to increase the storage space. Also, he felt the need to accompany us on the test drive - most dealerships were just content to take a Xerox of my driver's license and let me drive off by myself.

I didn't like the way the RAV-4 drove either: it was definitely more truck-like than the Honda or the Subaru, and there clearly seemed to be more road noise. Lily didn't like it much either.

I could see the appeal of the RAV-4 though: it looked the least like a station wagon of any of the compact SUVs I was looking at. If you want to drive a compact SUV that doesn't make you look like an old fart, the RAV-4 is for you.

Next we went into the heart of Albany to take a look at the Mazda Tribute. We wound up driving a white one that was on the lot. Again, I was less impressed with the Tribute than I was with the Honda or he Subaru I'd looked at the previous day. I felt less comfortable driving it, but it seemed to be better than the RAV-4.

Lily, on the other hand, was even more uncomfortable than before, and used the occasion to criticize my driving, especially my rather impulsive policy toward changing lanes in traffic. However, later she admitted that she was feeling motion-sick because the car had words painted on her side of the windshield and reading while riding always gives her a headache. In retrospect, I think they made me uncomfortable too.

So, again, it seemed to be down to the Subaru and the Honda.

Next, we went to a Honda dealership in Albany. This place was huge.

The car we test-drove there was not a 2001 CR-V but a 2002. This car was brand-spanking new - for some reason Honda had only released it a couple of weeks ago. It was so new, it wasn't even rated by Consumer Reports.

I had already half-decided on the Subaru Forester, but the 2002 CR-V caused me to shift my preferences. There seemed to be a quantum leap upward between the 2001 and the 2002. I liked the look of the car better, I liked the instrument panel better, it seemed to be a quieter ride than the 2001 and a better designed car. After the two previous cars we tried out Lily was very favorably impressed.

The only problem: since the car is so new, it's a hot item. No Honda dealer is going to budge on the sticker price while there are people standing in line to buy the car. Oh well. I think it starts cheaper than the Subaru does.

I can't remember the name of the salesman at this place, mainly because he was so quiet and diffident. He was also very, very young. Like High School young. Later Lily asked me: "Is he going to need a note from his daddy to sell us a car?"

After breaking for a late lunch, we went to our final stop - a Subaru dealership not far from our previous stop.

Again, I liked the Forester, but after driving the Honda, it was no longer the clear favorite. It seemed much more stodgy and station-wagon-ish than the CR-V, and I liked the instrument panel on the Honda better. On the other hand, the Forester seemed to be quieter, and it was cheaper. Furthermore, Subaru seemed willing to deal while Honda had a superior "take it or leave it" attitude because the 2002 CR-V was Le Car Hot."

Decisions, decisions.

Lily made no bones about it - she liked the CR-V better. On the other hand, she liked the salesman at the Subaru dealership, a personable guy named Will, better than anyone we'd met all day. Will knew his stuff, and he seemed to be going out of his way to make us feel happy and important - something that was sorely lacking at the Honda place. Yes, I know. It's called "salesmanship."

After this I spent most of the evening weighing the pros and cons of the two cars, the Subaru Forester and the Honda CR-V. Both of them more than fulfilled my needs, and both of them had very high marks from Consumer Reports, etc.

I sat down with a pad and paper and made a list of the pros and cons of both cars. When I was done, both seemed to have the same number, but the Honda seemed to have reasons of higher quality than the Forester.

The decision was very tough, but there was a certain pleasure in it. How often do I get to make such a choice between two GOOD things? No matter which car I chose, driving was going to become much, MUCH more pleasant.

Finally, I asked myself: if someone was going to just GIVE me one of the cars (I wish!), which one would I pick? The answer was obvious: the Honda. Now, the question was - how much was I willing to spend for the difference?

As it turned out, the difference turned out to be more than just money.

Instead of going back to the Albany Honda dealership I went to my local Honda dealer, the one I've been getting my car serviced at for years. They had the CR-V I wanted, in the color I wanted, but it wouldn't actually be in stock for a couple of weeks.

This Honda dealership had the same "take it or leave it" attitude as the Albany place, but things really got ugly when I talked about trading in the Little Red Wagon.

Now I know it's 13 years old and rusty, but it runs and it may have another 50,000 miles in it. I was expecting a couple of hundred dollars, maybe $500, but I was absolutely stunned when the salesman offered me $50 for it.

That's not an offer, it's an insult.

I came very close to just walking out and going over to the nice people at the Subaru place, but the Honda was what I had decided on, so I just swallowed my pride and took the trade-in off the table.

So, in a week or two I am going to get a nice new blue Honda CR-V. Too bad I had to eat some shit to get it.

That last little bit kind of spoiled the car buying experience for me, but I get the feeling that when I'm actually driving my nice new car I won't care about any of that stuff.