car decision

[cellio]

I finally found out why it's been so hard to find an Echo to test-drive. Apparently Toyota is phasing it out in favor of the Scion. So I drove a Scion tonight. So-so visibility, and its get-up-and-go got up and went. Yeah, it would be better with a manual, but I don't think it would be good. The cargo area is very shallow (though the car is a tall hatchback), and the car looks kind of wacky. Pass.

So I settled on the Golf. The manual I drove tonight was quite pleasant. I'm a little nervous about the anticipated maintenance record; if it turns out to be a problem maybe I'll trade it in on a hybrid when the warranty expires. But it's the most comfortable car I've driven, and it's a good car with the features I want, and while the gas mileage is disappointing, I haven't found anything better that (1) was actually available for purchase and (2) I found as comfortable. (The Focus was close on comfort, but the Golf is a little better.) So Golf it is. I made a deposit tonight, and he'll call me tomorrow to tell me when my car will be in.

Aside: while we were driving I commented that I'd gone looking for diesel sources with little luck, and I didn't want to bank too heavily on a mere two gas stations, particularly as hybrids might phase out fuel-efficient diesel engines in the next several years. The diesel version of the Golf is somewhat more expensive than the regular one. The dealer said nothing to attempt to change my mind, though I phrased things in a clear "but I could be wrong" way. Interesting.

I might have done something wrong in the haggling, because it was too easy to get (close to) my target price. The bottom line is a few hundred dollars over invoice and reflects a fair value for my trade-in, though, so I'm not complaining. If the dealer scored on an unadvertised incentive or something (that Edmunds didn't know about), that's ok.

Yay! New car soon!

Comments

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Yay, new car soon! In terms of non-haggling, could also be that a) you came in as a super-informed consumer, which means that the dealership would have to spend a lot of time with you in order to make you pay more, and that could lose you as a customer, and b) it's the car selling slow season, which means they're happy to sell a car to you at all. In any case, good job! :)

[cellio]

That makes sense. I guess I don't think of myself as atypically informed; I assume that anyone who's going to plunk down money on a car will have the invoice and incentives data (ordered through Consumer Reports if they don't know how to get it on the web). So I'm guessing that the process has changed, and the days of dealers taking people for large amounts of money on high-markup prices are just gone, but I don't know.

I'm also not good at coy and subtle, so I didn't try. When it came time to talk price, I pulled out my printout and said "I believe your MSRP is X and your invoice is Y; do you agree?" and then we went from there. When we talked about trade-in, I gave him the figure from Kelly Blue Book.

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

Nifty! I hope it works out for you.

[queenmabwords.livejournal.com]

My husband really likes his Golf! Congratulations! What color did you chose?

[cellio]

Blue. It has an adjective-enhanced name that I don't currently recall. :-) (The interior is black; I hope I don't regret that come summer.)

[tikvahope.livejournal.com]

Yay car!
We were considering an Echo (I don't know why, as a new car is nowhere in our immediate future) but I decided that the dashboard would drive me crazy... I am remembering correctly that it's the one with the panel in the middle, right?
We know pretty much figure that any car in our future has to somehow incorporate the words "station wagon" into it's funky moniker.
Speaking of car names, wtf is up with calling a car the Esteem? What's next? The Ego? The Pride? The My Car is Bigger Than Your Car?

[cellio]

Yes, the Echo has the instruments more toward the center of the car, a design choice they carried over into the Scion. I found it a challenge on the test drive, though I imagine it's something you get used to. The combination of that placement and the small numbers on the speedometer and tachometer made it hard for me to read; I hadn't yet decided how much of a problem it would be when I decided that other aspects of the Scion just didn't work for me. (The Echo would have still be in the running, were it available.)

By the way, the Scion seems to have taken a hint from the Civic in the nooks-and-crannies department. That's helpful, though not enough of a reason to buy it. :-)

[mrpeck.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you found something that you like.