The Car I Chose

I have been looking at getting a new car for a while now, and today I took the step of test driving the three cars I narrowed my search to.

I should mention that I was getting frustrated before shopping for a car because of the electronics. Obviously I’m big into gadget, and technology in cars have come a long way. So I really had certain things in mind that I wanted. First was an iPod connector. I don’t mean an open auxiliary plug on the front of the stereo. That doesn’t charge the iPod, and you cannot control the iPod through the stereo like that. I wanted an actual iPod dock connector. The second requirement was a navigation system. I wanted a decent size, easy to use and hands free system. The third requirement was XM or Sirius. Fourth was a Bluetooth synced system for my cell phone for handsfree dialing and talking through the car. I also wanted an in dash CD player, and if possible a rear view camera.

No car on the market had all these things. So I would have to compromise on what I could get, and I don’t like doing that.

The other requirements I had were that it be a small SUV, sunroof, good horsepower, enough towing capacity to carry a small boat (in case I ever buy one), and leather interior. The main things I was concerned about was power, steering and road noise. I hate road noise!

I caught a break in the electronic area when I found the Pioneer AVIC Z1. This unit offered everything that I wanted, and costs about $2,500 with everything installed, including XM and Sirius if I want, rear view camera, and it has the cool XM traffic update that feeds traffic info into the nav system to tell me the quickest routes while taking traffic into account.

So, with the electronics out of the way, I was able to nail down to the three models I went to look at. I should say that my first choice was the Lexus hybrid, but there is no Lexus dealer within 2 hours of here. So I had to rule that out.

The first car I test drove was the Chevy Equinox. This is also the cheapest of the cars on the list at well under $30k.

A side note here on Oregon salespeople. Oregon has the worst business people I have ever seen. Their salespeople try to down sell you, and they seem to be incredibly unmotivated. I’m not saying I like aggressive sales people, but I would prefer them to someone trying to explain how I should give up on some luxury items to save money. Three times the Chevy sales guy asked if the car had to be a 2007. Oregon sales people are just not very good.

My girlfriend owns an Equinox, so I’m already pretty familiar with the car. I drove her a few times, and that’s in part why it made the list. My opinion of the car matches the Edmonds review of it, except that I don’t think the electronic steering is a problem at all. I have actually found the steering to be one of the better points of the car.

I had previously driven a 2006 model of the Equinox, and they have made a coupe good additions to the 2007. First, it now has a simple drivers information center on the console. This displays simple car info like the tire and oil pressure. A simple luxury that amazes me. They also added a remote start, and it appears they added a better trunk release on the remote as well. these were much needed features. They also now offer an Auxiliary in on the stereo, and an in dash navigation, which I don’t care about because I’m going with the Pioneer system.

The car drove very well. It only has 185 horsepower, but it doesn’t feel at all sluggish. It’s actually quite quick. It’s also incredibly easy to maneuver. I made sure to do a 3 point turn to check it out, and it handed very nicely.

The next car I drove was the Acura MDX. The MDX is the most expensive of the cars I was testing, and I thought it would certainly blow away the Equinox. The question for me was not whether it was a better car, but more was it $12k worth of better car. Well I have to say that I was surprised. The MDX has a couple things going for it. First, it has more power than the Equinox. The sales guy seem surprised that I was comparing the two. But I didn’t really feel much of a difference in acceleration. The Acura was a little more quiet, but nothing really noticeable to most people who weren’t paying attention to it. But the Acura fell short of most other important areas. It was less legroom, especially in the back. I didn’t handle as nimble as the Equinox, and it was not as fun to drive. It did feel more solid, but not exactly in a good way. Not that it was sluggish, but it didn’t have any real pep to it. It honestly felt the way I would expect a car like this after a couple years on the road. It didn’t really move like a new car.

Plus, the sales guys were pretty useless. They were unable to help on pricing or any information. It was really quite amazing in that I don’t think I could have even purchased the car today if I wanted it. I would have gone deeper into how screwed up they were, but I didn’t want the car anyway.

Overall, the MDX didn’t perform as well as the Equinox, and it costs over $12k more. So, I will pas on the Equinox.

Next up was the Nissan Murano. I first have to say that I am opposed to the car based on the name alone. Whoever in their marketing department thought that was a cool name is…well a moron-o. It sounds like Spanish for dipshit. But, a close friend just bought one of these and he swears by it. So, I gave it a try. I do have to say that I like the way the Murano looks. The black ones seem to have this kinda Batman thing going for it. It’s sleek and has some cool lines. The interior is cool looking as well. It’s like a cross between a mini-van and SUV.

Driving it felt a little more mini-van than SUV. That’s not a bad thing really. I rather a mini-van ride than a truck. But the other two cars did feel more like sedans. The acceleration was a little more held back than the Acura and Chevy. And the road noise was noticeably higher than the other two cars. And I think the sales guy was again lacking any real skills. He didn’t really offer up positive info on the car. The Murano was the car I knew the least about, but yet I seemed to know more than he did. He knew nothing about acceleration times, MPG, or the cost of extras like leather. Every answer he gave was a vague guess. The Murano had great legroom in the front, but it appeared to be at the expense of legroom in the read. Even though I’m under 6 feet, I’m incredibly inconsiderate and push my seat all the way back. I also don’t like to hear people bitch about not having enough legroom behind me. I feel bad when I ignore them. So, it appeared that the Murano had not quite beaten the Equinox.

But I had to make one more stop, since technically it in the same parking lot. I went to check out the BMW X5. If you are in the market for a new car, and you don’t plan on spending over $70k, DO NOT go to the BMW dealership. After my drive in the X5, everything else feels like shit. I sometimes wonder if the extra expense of things like BMW’s are really worth it. Wholly shit it really is! That car is amazing. First off, the 2007 models have everything in the electronic department that i wanted. iPod hook up, Navigation, Bluetooth phone, rear view video, Sirius radio. Perfect. Which is good because for some reason the 2006 waster space with things like a cassette deck. I don’t know many people in a $80k car that are still holding on to their cassettes.

The car drives like a dream. It’s much bigger than the other cars I tested today, but it moved like a sports car. It also had 325 horsepower, so that could be the main reason. I was able to maneuver through traffic like I never had before. I took turns at a pretty good speed, and didn’t really notice.

On a side note, the sales guy Eric at the BMW dealership was the only sales guy I met that knew how to sell a car. He wasn’t pushy, but knew all the answers. He didn’t pry, but made sure to find out what was important to me. He is the also the only one who knew to take me to a road where I can open the car up and play with it.

On one strip of road, I punched the accelerator and took off. I was waiting to feel the shift in gears. Nothing. 50 mph, nothing. 60 mph, nothing, 70 mph, nothing. I gave up at 75. Eric noting what I was looking for mentioned that the car was very wide bands and wouldn’t shift until about 80 or so. That is amazing to me. And by the way, at 75 mph, all I heard was the sweet sound of the engine purring. No wind noise, no road noise, nothing else. And even the engine noise was like comforting white noise. I’m not a car guy really. I have never been into fixing cars or anything like that. But this car makes you into a car guy.

After the drive, I had to get the scoop on how out reality this car is financially. So Eric and I went to his office and went through the options list. It’s like making your christmas list as a kid, except Santa’s not footing the bill. The total for the car I want…$72,590. I could in theory get 3 Equinox’s for this price. And the worst part is, no budging right now from MSRP. No deals at all. There is already a waiting list of the 2007’s, and I wouldn’t be able to get one for 3 months. The funny part is that I’m in Oregon. These people drive Outbacks and Prius. Who are these people throwing over $70k down on cars here?

In the end I left with a brochure to dream about. It’s not necessarily that I couldn’t afford one, no matter what Andy might say at USWeb. I mean the lease would only be about $600 per month, which is not $200 more than I’ll pay for a normal car. That’s not a big deal to me. It’s just that I can’t legitimize that much on a car. I don’t drive very often, and certainly not often enough that I need that level of car. But…

I have decided to re-visit the issue in the summer, and also see what type of deal I could get them. For now, I need to stick with the issue at hand.

So, it looks like the Equinox is the winner. It fits all the requirements, and it does so at a very low price. I need to haggle a bit with the local dealer, and possibly check a second dealer to get competitive pricing. But I should be able to get the car, with the Pioneer system installed for under $30k. Considering that the car is then fully loaded, and the Murano start at $32k and $43k respectively, that’s pretty good. The downside is that I may have to wait 60 days for the car I want, but hopefully we can get it in a little sooner. I’ll post pictures when I get it.

Also, insurance is a hell of a lot cheaper on the Equinox. Saving even more money.