Car Hunting and Avoidance

Since I accepted a job out on the East coast, my friend and I have been actively perusing the car market to find a new (or used) set of wheels. We made a day of going to a nearby automall that had nearly every automobile manufacturer in our price range to do some test driving. Our preferences were something in the $20-25k range, a strong Consumer Reports reliability rating, more than 21/25 MPG, more than 170 HP, no more than 50,000 miles if used, decent financing, and an automatic. Here’s what we saw:

Mazda Dealership – We started at Mazda to start at the lower end of our price range with the Mazda3 ($21k). Simply put, the Mazda3 has top notch scores from everyone and anyone who’s ever driven it. The interior is like something you’d expect out of a car 10 grand more, although we weren’t a huge fan of the red backlighting. With comfy seats and a strong, responsive engine, the dealer repeatedly told us to “give it some more gas” on our test-drive, egging us on to blast over the overpass. Our dealer, Juan, was especially patient and didn’t speak a word about pricing, financing, or anything about “selling us a car today” unless we asked specifically. We walked away completely impressed by both the car and the dealership. But enough with the piddlings, we decided to have some fun.

Toyota Dealership – We pulled into the Toyota dealership and was greeted with a dealer who materialized out of thin air. It’s funny how they do that whenever a car pulls into the lot. After a brief glance at the inventory, we selected a top of the line Camry, with body kit. This years’ Camry is especially good looking, but at $30k, it’s just not worth it. The engine was strong, but the pedal and brake feel felt like stepping on ice-cream cake. The turning radius was horrible, with steering response similar to that of an old-generation Volvo. As young as it looks, this is a car for an older crowd. After being in the Mazda3, this top-end Camry with Nav still looked pretty drab to me. Also, our dealer took us on a test drive that was about 5 minutes long. Next?

Honda Dealership – Here we met the worst dealer in the world. Let’s call him Jim. Jim was very happy to talk about the modified Accord out in front. This particular Accord was $36,000, with over $6k in nigh-useless modifications! For $3k more, you could get a top-end 3-Series BMW! So when Jim found out that that wasn’t quite in my budget, Jim became very angry. He scowled about, muttering answers to our questions about more reasonably priced cars. Jim also decided to leave us several times to answer his phone, eventually saying “Hey, I gotta go help someone in service” and then hurried away. Right, thanks. We were eventually approached by another dealer who insisted we buy the $30k Accord Coupe right here, right now. We pondered a bit about who walks into a dealership with $30k in cash on them. We didn’t like him very much and decided to leave.

Volvo Dealership – Once we saw our Volvo dealer was going to be named “Juan” again, we breathed a sigh of relief. Like a breath of fresh air, Juan Number 2 greeted us with a genuine smile and completely open demeanor. We plainly stated what were in looking for and he showed us to the brand-new Volvo C30. The C30 is a new, sporty hatchback that is like an upscaled version of the Mazda3 platform. It’s a little better in every way, except it comes with $29k price tag. Our test drive was a leisurely 20 minutes and all in all, extremely impressive. The price really killed it for us, but this is one of those rare occasions where the dealer actually made us like the car more than the car itself. Not a bad way to end the day.

Conclusion - While my friend has her eyes on the Mazda3, my ultimate conclusion is that I think I’m just going to get a used Honda Accord, probably a Hybrid. Sure, I could get a nice used 2003 BMW or Infinity for the same price and play off of the cliff-like devaluation, but I just don’t think I can deal with the premium $3.80/gal price tag. Another conclusion? Name your kids “Juan.”

If you are searching for a car yourself, do the following:

1. Always start with the latest issue of Consumer Reports. Once a year, they release a compendium of ratings and tests of all the major automobiles on the market. The reviews are unbiased and reliability ratings are spot on.
2. Go to Edmunds.com. Official and consumer ratings and reviews. Pictures. Invoice and MSRP prices. All in one place. Also not a bad place to check out the Used Cars listings.
3. Go for a test drive. Ignore the dealer and get a feel for the car. Once they start talking about financing, it’s time to leave.
4. Go to Carsdirect.com. When you’re ready to buy a car, avoid the negotiation hassle. Here, you can see immediately what you should be paying, select your options, and evaluate your trade-in. Prices should hover around invoice price, which can be $2,000-3,000 less than what you’d see at a dealership. Also not a bad place to check out used cars as well.
5. Haggle if you have the guts. This is optional. Buy the weekly CarDeals report that outlines all the factory-to-dealer specials going on that week. Armed with this information, throw sub-invoice prices around to different dealerships.  Playing them off of each other always puts you in the best possible position to buy a car.

If you’d prefer to do it all in person, be sure to read Confessions of a Car Salesman, an article written by an undercover Edmund’s reporter. You will surprised what goes on there.

~ by bioscigrad on March 19, 2008.