Finding out that my beloved truck has begun limping along, I figured that it might be better to take it out back and shoot it, rather than taking the chance of being stranded somewhere. Starter, clutch, two oil leaks, steering, some minor body damage, a “look at the birdy in the sky” light, and the sender unit from the gas tank needs replacing. The price tag on repairs is enough to make a girl feel a little queasy, so weighing the options out, it seems to be a better idea to purchase a new/ish car that gets better milage.
A friend of mine has looked at nearly all the cars that I had in mind, in effect, doing most of my work for me. Car review sites and Edmunds have become my new best friends, but don’t take the place of actually seeing/driving it in person. We were off to go browse what’s out there before making the decision, and had minimal time to look.
We had a very good experience at the Heritage Mazda dealership, where Ralph showed us what’s available, both new and used. There was a used Versa with low miles that we might get a good deal on, but we didn’t test drive that. Technical details and options were discussed and we hopped into the Mazda 3 hatchback. We both like it, it’s spacious and handles VERY nicely (they don’t say “zoomzoom” for nothing) but it’s the first car to test, so on to the next dealership.
With 20 minutes to look at another brand of cars, we headed to Northwest Honda, where I wanted to check out the Fit and perhaps a Civic. We had the misfortune of meeting up with Eddie, whose business card claimed he was a “Selection Specialist”. He rushed us around, spoke technical details to hubby and color details to me. Big mistake, especially since Adam deferred to me whenever addressed. The manager was equally as oily salesmanesque, and while he did address me, still felt very pushy. We were hastily forced into an appointment (which I’ve cancelled), and told to bring our trade-in. Like this was a done deal, even though we adamantly told him that we were just browsing.
Obviously my personal preference is currently the Mazda 3, but we plan to hit the Toyota dealership tonight, and I’m told that the Scions are also nice.
