I'm back! I trust all of my American friends had a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving…
Remember how I was telling you of the kerfluffle I was involved in Wednesday before Thanksgiving? Well, I took the truck to the collision shop for evaluation, and, no surprise, the insurance company declared it a total loss (our state requires that when the damage exceeds 75% of the vehicle's book value). It was a bit funny–when the adjuster told me, he acted like it would come as a great shock to me, and was fumbling a bit. He then was saying that "all we need to do now is figure out what we're going to pay out…" Without missing a beat, I said "Oh, how about thirty thousand dollars?" He fumbled some more–until he realized what I said. "We're not that rich!" I told him I was kidding, and once the business was done I wound up getting towards the high average of the value of a 1999 Toyota Tacoma V6 SR5 PreRunner Access Cab in good condition. As I said last time, I will miss that little truck–it served me for 13 years and 375,159 miles without fail. I only hope whatever becomes of it helps other people as much as it did me.
So, there I am Wednesday afternoon, check in hand at the credit union. I deposited the check, and the teller asks me of it is okay if there is a three day hold on the check. As if I had any say in that matter. I explained that I would be needing funds, but I could temporarily transfer some money from my savings account. I told her why I needed the money, and she reminded me that they did vehicle loans. Well, prior experience tells me that while they certainly do those types of loans, I'll be better off using other financing…I was right, more on that later…
I had been researching and sneaking test drives for a while, and I had originally wanted to go with a Kia or Hyundai. One nagging thing kept me from going back–their smaller cars use an electrically boosted steering, and on both drives I was constantly making steering corrections. Now, I live out in the sticks on narrow country roads, and during the winter my drive to and from work is done in the dark–the last thing I need to add to the drive is bump steering a vehicle. So, I took a pass on the Korean subcompacts.
I also thought I'd better look at the Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus–of the Big Three American automakers, Ford is the one that seems to have their act together. Well, I'll say thins–I'm sure they are fine automobiles, but by the time I found something equipped the way I wanted it, I was looking at the other side of $24K. Too rich for my Scot blood, especially for a subcompact car.
I researched the Chevy Sonic, too. Now, the Sonic isn't truly a Chevrolet, it is a badge engineered Daewoo product. It was put in the Chevy lineup to replace the truly horrid Aveo–but from what I read, it isn't much better. Add to that my previous experience with General Motors, and it was also ruled out.
Mitsubishi and Suzuki? Try to find a dealership here. Nope.
Mini? And pay BMW prices for the privilege? Hardly…
The VW Jetta seems like a good car–I drove one while I was in Tucson. But with that VW badge comes VW maintenance prices. If I'm going to pay those prices to maintain a car built in Germany, I'll take a Porsche or Audi, thanks!
Dodge? No way I'll look at a Dodge product. I'm a MOPAR fan from way back, but that was a very different Chrysler Corporation. Nope, they tied their fate to Fiat and it may kill both. That's also why I dismissed the Fiat 500.
What about Toyota, you say? True, my Tacoma was a solid vehicle. Problem is that Toyota got a bit full of themselves somewhere around 2003/2004. Most of their lineup hasn't seen a major restyle since then. Toyota seems to want to sell either various iterations of the Prius or warmed over Corollas and Camrys.
Just for giggles, I looked at the "Boxes"–the Scion vB, the Nissan Cube, and the Kia Soul. While I appreciate the funky styling, none of them was "me".
Speaking of Nissan, I did consider the Versa. We drove one last year when we were in Grand Junction on that pop-up trip for work. It isn't a bad little car, but Nissans don't hold their value as well as other makes.
So that leaves Honda. (Well, Honda and Subaru–and Subaru's pricing is like Ford's–good cars, no doubt, but too rich for me.) My family is no stranger to Honda–my brother had an Accord and a Civic, and my mother's current car is also a Civic. Since I wanted a hatchback, I looked at the Honda Fit (Jazz to those of you in Europe who may be reading). I did some research, and most of the complaints seemed minor. I went to the local dealer's website and requested a price quote. About an hour later, I got one–and it was lower than I thought it would be. It was below TrueCar's average, so that piqued my interest. Last Friday I managed to get out of work early, so I went to the dealership and did the test drive. The car drives very nicely, and better yet, I was able to climb in–creaky joints and all–with no problem at all. The salesman is about as tall as my wife, and he had plenty of leg- and headroom, which answered another question. And the inside of this car is cavernous. Depending on how you configure the seats (Magic Seats, Honda calls them), you have enough space to haul just about anything that will fit through the hatch…reminds me of a car I used to own. Once the drive was done, I told the salesman that I'd contact him when I got home.
I had already done some math, and was ready to buy. I called the salesman and set up an appointment for the next day, and he told me to go ahead and submit a credit app through their website. For those of you who "know how to buy a car", let me tell you this–I was in and out in two hours. My credit app was sent to them Friday night, they had my credit score waiting. The only questions they had were "How much are you going to put down?" and "How long will you be financing the balance?" Well, that and "Do you want an extended service contract?"–I wasn't going to at first, but in the end I bought one. I had to remind myself that this wasn't a dirt-simple 1999 pickup truck, and the kicker was when the F&I guy held up a tire pressure sensor and told me how much it cost, both the part and labor to change. Sold…I guess he did his job.
Anyway, the whole thing was done in two hours and with little fuss. So, now I have a new car…a 2013 Honda Fit Sport:
And yes, it is blue. Vortex Blue Pearl, to be exact. I have had enough brown/tan/silver/gray/white cars in my life, I wanted something with a little color…I guess I got what I wanted.
Thanks for reading. Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.