car possibilities

Dani's been shopping for a new car, and one of the ones I suggested he look at (based on my search last year) was the Ford Focus. He seems to like it, though he hasn't made any decisions yet.

But he came back from the dealership with some information about current pricing. He suggested that I might be able to make close to an even trade. And while I enjoy driving the Golf, I really haven't been happy with its reliability so far. And my mechanic (who did the inspection) warned me that I am far from alone in that experience; he sees his Golf-owning customers a lot more than he sees most of the others. So I decided to pay a visit to the Ford dealer tonight after class.

They didn't have a Focus with manual transmission for me to drive tonight, but they will tomorrow. I sat in the Focus they had on the showroom floor and it feels comfortable and has good visibility. Unlike last year, I can see everything I care about on the dash without the steering wheel getting in the way. The interior seems better-done than last year's model (which felt a little chintzy to me).

According to Edmunds, I can't quite make an even trade but I can get pretty close. Since I don't need to buy a new car at all right now, I might be able to bargain. And yes, I confirmed that I would pay sales tax only on the transaction amount, not on the price of the new car. I'm not so disgusted with my Golf that I want to plunk down another $1k+ in sales tax alone, after all.

I was pretty straightforward with the sales guy: I said that last year I'd had it down to the Focus and one other car and I ended up going with the other, but I was having some regrets and I was interested in seeing what they could do for me while acknowledging that I'd shot my financial wad last year.

So we'll see how things look after I've driven one.