I am changing jobs (which is a saga in and of itself), which in turn means I am in the market for an automobile, having the luxury of a company vehicle the past few years. I have been the primary driver of only a few vehicles in my lifetime:
- 1992-1997: '86 Pontiac Grand-Am, which belonged to my mom [hand-me-down]
- 1997-1998: '83 Volkswagon Vanagon, a gift from my uncle [hand-me-down]
- 1998-1999: a myriad of borrowed vehicles in Australia and Thailand
- 1999-2001: the Grand-Am again; dad took the van for his own [hand-me-down]
- 2001-2005: '96 Geo Metro (the low point, Maggie's wedding dowry) [hand-me-down]
- 2005-2008: '01 Subaru Outback, inheriting from Maggie as the Bowling fam decides to jump into Minivan country for her car [hand-me-down]
- 2008-present: '06 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which belongs to my (former) boss [hand-me-down]
Now I have to buy a vehicle of my own, for myself, which is a strangely new experience. As an engineer's-engineer, I have taken this effort a bit seriously:
April 5th - Four hours in a first look at Consumer Reports, determining all eligible car options. For those of you who did not make the cut, regardless of price, color or style, you are dead to me. The initial contenders:
Hatchback: Sedan
Honda Civic Honda Accord
Honda Fit Honda Civic
Mazda3 Mazda6
Nissan Versa Nissan Altima
Toyota Matrix Nissan Sentra
Toyota Camry
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Yaris
April 10th - a second look, to narrow the pack down to:
Hatchback: Sedan
Mazda3 Honda Accord
Toyota Matrix Honda Civic
Mazda6
Toyota Camry
Toyota Corolla
Volkswagon Jetta (I cheated, and added this one)
April 15th, a trip to Carmax, where I ask to sit in each of these models and see what I think. Now I only have:
Hatchback: Sedan
Mazda3 Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Volkswagon Jetta
April 19th, I return to Carmax with a 3rd party observer, and ask to drive them. I walk away with the following options:
Sedan
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Volkswagon Jetta
April 20th, I look at 5 local dealership websites and Autotrader.com and print out ALL eligible sales, based upon mileage, cost, and the ALL-IMPORTANT I'm NOT driving old-man-tan or old-car-silver. Turns out I have 7 Accords, 9 Civics & 11 Jettas to choose from. After a talk with the Misses, the Civic is stricken from the list and the cars to assess is weeded down to 3 Accords & 6 Jettas.
Time to start pitting these folks against each other and see who comes out on top.
April 23rd, Leave the house at 10:30am to VW Lithia Springs - look at 3 Jettas. Decide on one. Talk Maggie into going to VW South Atlanta, "only 20 minutes away", just to check their inventory to make a final decision. Key "VW South Atlanta" into my Droid, and have Maggie direct me. When we finish up in Westview, in what is obviously not Car Dealership country, we know something is wrong. So, we key in the address into my car's Nav system, which takes us due south, parallel to I-85. "Why don't we just get on 85," Maggie asks. "Dunno, let's just follow the directions. Already got lost once."
After about 37 turns through Cambellton, East Point, College Park, Camp Creek, I finally relent and we get on I-85. Two miles later, the Nav tells us to get off the exit... there must be some reason. After another 13 minutes driving 4 miles south through red-lightville, I realize that the Nav is on the "No Freeway" setting.
65 minutes after leaving Lithia Springs, we pull into VW South Atlanta, where Maggie turns to me and states with clear authority: "We are NOT leaving here without a car." And so, finishing the deal at 5:10pm, I drive away with a '08 VW Jetta, the first car I've ever bought for myself.