car shopping, part 2 (and a question)
Feb. 18th, 2004 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioI'll get the question out of the way first for people who don't otherwise care: how much should I care about all-wheel drive? (Note: not four- wheel drive.)
On to tonight's shopping.
Waaaahhhh! I want Honda's user interface in almost anybody else's body. Sigh.
I drove a Honda Civic (sedan). The controls are all within easy reach, the dashboard is easy to read, things make sense, and there are plenty of nooks and crannies to stuff odd junk in. The seat is fully adjustable, and it was not hard for me to find a combination of seat position and steering-wheel position that made me comfortable and gave me full visibility to the dash.
Unfortunately, it's a sedan. Honda does not make any hatchbacks. (I thought they had something that was kind-of sort-of hatchbacky, but I was wrong.) Now as sedans go it's pretty roomy for cargo (much better than Dani's Saturn!), so that alone isn't necessarily a show-stopper. I would have to do more wiggling than I'm used to to put my hammer dulcimer in, but it would be doable. I could probably fit all the Pennsic stuff in.
But there's the visibility problem. With the back seats up it's poor due to the rear headrests; with the back seats down (and frankly, my car can live in that state most of the time) it's a lot better. It's not great, though, and I think I would want to do a daylight highway-driving test to see if it's acceptable. I'm not sure it gives me what I need for passing at highway speeds.
They did not have a Civic hybrid for me to drive tonight, but the sales person told me that the battery takes a sizable chunk out of the trunk space and he thinks I don't want it. It's the same car other than its hybridness, so if the Civic were otherwise a winner I'd go back to see for myself, or ask Tofi to show me his. I'm pretty conflicted about the Civic right now.
I also looked at the Ford Focus. I was prepared to not like this car, after some of the comments I received about it yesterday/today, but I actually found it comfortable (for the most part), and the drive seemed fine to me. It doesn't have the polish of the Civic, and I couldn't find seat/wheel positions that didn't impede line of sight to some important parts of the dashboard. And the speedometer is harder to read than anything else I've driven, though I guess you get used to needle position and don't read the numbers anyway. (That's pretty much what I do in my current car, though I can make out the numbers.) The interior space is not so well laid-out in the passenger area; I didn't see obvious places to put sunglasses, toll money, and the accumulation of receipts that comes from any trip. The cargo space is pretty good, though, and the visibility is good. (Not as good as my current car, but nothing is so far. I'll have to cope.) The sales person mentioned that they have some 2003 models left over and there's a $3500 rebate for buying one of those, which is worth noting. (He says it's the same car; I'd like to find a way to verify that.)
I asked about the Focus' history of recalls and repair problems, and he claimed that they completely redesigned the car after that and it's not currently a problem. Of course, who'd know? It's soon to tell. And the massive warranty can be read two ways -- "we're that confident", or "you're going to need this".
My next shopping opportunity will be next Tuesday. I want to check out the Golf and go back to Toyota to see an Echo; the relevant dealers are a few blocks apart. (There wasn't time last night to hit VW, unfortunately.)
I've eliminated the Mazda 3 at this point; all else is still in play.
On to tonight's shopping.
Waaaahhhh! I want Honda's user interface in almost anybody else's body. Sigh.
I drove a Honda Civic (sedan). The controls are all within easy reach, the dashboard is easy to read, things make sense, and there are plenty of nooks and crannies to stuff odd junk in. The seat is fully adjustable, and it was not hard for me to find a combination of seat position and steering-wheel position that made me comfortable and gave me full visibility to the dash.
Unfortunately, it's a sedan. Honda does not make any hatchbacks. (I thought they had something that was kind-of sort-of hatchbacky, but I was wrong.) Now as sedans go it's pretty roomy for cargo (much better than Dani's Saturn!), so that alone isn't necessarily a show-stopper. I would have to do more wiggling than I'm used to to put my hammer dulcimer in, but it would be doable. I could probably fit all the Pennsic stuff in.
But there's the visibility problem. With the back seats up it's poor due to the rear headrests; with the back seats down (and frankly, my car can live in that state most of the time) it's a lot better. It's not great, though, and I think I would want to do a daylight highway-driving test to see if it's acceptable. I'm not sure it gives me what I need for passing at highway speeds.
They did not have a Civic hybrid for me to drive tonight, but the sales person told me that the battery takes a sizable chunk out of the trunk space and he thinks I don't want it. It's the same car other than its hybridness, so if the Civic were otherwise a winner I'd go back to see for myself, or ask Tofi to show me his. I'm pretty conflicted about the Civic right now.
I also looked at the Ford Focus. I was prepared to not like this car, after some of the comments I received about it yesterday/today, but I actually found it comfortable (for the most part), and the drive seemed fine to me. It doesn't have the polish of the Civic, and I couldn't find seat/wheel positions that didn't impede line of sight to some important parts of the dashboard. And the speedometer is harder to read than anything else I've driven, though I guess you get used to needle position and don't read the numbers anyway. (That's pretty much what I do in my current car, though I can make out the numbers.) The interior space is not so well laid-out in the passenger area; I didn't see obvious places to put sunglasses, toll money, and the accumulation of receipts that comes from any trip. The cargo space is pretty good, though, and the visibility is good. (Not as good as my current car, but nothing is so far. I'll have to cope.) The sales person mentioned that they have some 2003 models left over and there's a $3500 rebate for buying one of those, which is worth noting. (He says it's the same car; I'd like to find a way to verify that.)
I asked about the Focus' history of recalls and repair problems, and he claimed that they completely redesigned the car after that and it's not currently a problem. Of course, who'd know? It's soon to tell. And the massive warranty can be read two ways -- "we're that confident", or "you're going to need this".
My next shopping opportunity will be next Tuesday. I want to check out the Golf and go back to Toyota to see an Echo; the relevant dealers are a few blocks apart. (There wasn't time last night to hit VW, unfortunately.)
I've eliminated the Mazda 3 at this point; all else is still in play.
Mazda Protege5?
Date: 2004-02-19 05:56 am (UTC)Re: Mazda Protege5?
Date: 2004-02-19 07:55 am (UTC)And bring your dulcimer when making your final decision
Absolutely. And the actual dulcimer, not just its case like I did last time. Fit is important, but I also need to know that I can maneuver it into wherever it has to go, and an empty case just isn't the same at all. (That's something that concerns me a bit with sedans -- the Civic has plenty of space in which to fit the dulcimer, but can I get it into place without tearing up the fabric on the back of the folded-down seats? I'll have to try it to know.)
In my current car, I can stand the dulcimer up (so long as there's other stuff to pack in around it), thus allowing me to have one back-seat passenger. This option doesn't exist in a sedan, so if I have the dulcimer it looks like I have one passenger max. Now granted, I try to con other members of my music group into doing the driving to conventions, but until now I've at least been able to supply a car that could hold three people. I'll have to decide if that's important to me; it might not be now that everyone else has real cars too. :-)