I immediately started doing research on cars. I figured we would get rid of the coupe (pronounced Koo-PAY - sorry, I have been watching a lot of Top Gear on BBC America lately) and look at the mid-size saloon class of cars. This class includes mainstays like the Honda Accord and Toyota Corolla. However, I wasn't really ready to trade in the coupe for a Honda Accord. Not that there is anything wrong with the Accord - it's a reliable and safe vehicle for sure. Trouble is, it's boring as hell. So I put a list of cars in the mid-size saloon class that were affordable and good cars that were fun to drive. My list included the Ford Fusion, the Motor Trend Car of the Year, the Nissan Altima, and the Mazda 6. All three cars are 2010 models, and all were consistently mentioned across numerous sources as great cars in the mid-size class.
Meanwhile, Sarah stayed busy doing research on leasing versus buying, what questions to ask, what to look out for when making a deal, etc. This was the first time buying a car for either of us, so we were both quite inexperienced at the whole thing.
On Saturday, we went out for test drives. Our first stop was the Nissan dealership to drive the Altima. This car was fantastic from the get-go, and we were both really impressed with everything about the car.
Our second stop was the Ford dealership to drive the Fusion. The Fusion was number one on my list from the beginning. I think it is an attractive looking vehicle. It features the cool Microsoft Sync system that allows you to sync all of your music and phone info to your car (truthfully most cars these days have similar systems installed in them), and over all I had high hopes for this car. Unfortunately, we were both a bit disappointed. All of the cars on our list have a 4-cylinder engine as their basic engine. I was skeptical about this at first, but after reading some articles, I accepted the fact that the 4-cylinder was probably the better choice over a V6. They are cheaper from the get-go, get better gas mileage, and the performance from upgrading to a V6 isn't overwhelming in most cases. However, the Fusion had a noticeable delay when downshifting to pass. I wasn't thrilled with its performance. Also, it had an annoying jerkiness to it when downshifting while breaking. The inside of the car was just OK. There wasn't anything wrong with it per-se, it just wasn't as nice as the Altima's interior. And I really hated the dash on the Fusion. The Altima didn't suffer from the performance issues that the Fusion had. For one thing, the Altima has a CVT transmission that continuously changes the ratios of the gear, meaning it never has to shift. This is all done seamlessly, and I never noticed it jerking around or being slow to adjust. It has a peppy 175 bhp inline 4 cylinder engine, which was quite fun to drive. I can't afford a BMW M5 yet, but if I've learned one thing from the guys at Top Gear, it is drive a car that is fun.
So right away, we were much more impressed with the Altima. The only way we would consider the Fusion is if there was a dramatic price difference - and there was. The wrong way. The guy wanted about $50 a month more to drive the Fusion. Sarah and I pretty much laughed at this. Sarah did a great job all weekend telling the salesmen what we were and weren't doing and standing up to them. The salesmen at Ford was an ass. He was trying to make us feel stupid for even looking at other cars. We were so annoyed by him that if we decided to get the Ford we were going to go to another dealership. The salesman at Nissan wasn't like this at all (although the finance manager was a complete DB). He encouraged us to go look at other places and was super nice. Ford matched the Altima's price, but why would I pay the same for a car that I feel isn't as good?
After visiting Ford, we were both tired and kind of annoyed. We liked the Altima so much we decided to just skip the Mazda test drive and get the Nissan. Sarah called a few dealerships to get some prices, and using those prices and the Fusion price (we told the Nissan dealer we were thinking of getting the Fusion if he didn't lower the Altima price, even though that wasn't true), Sarah was able to lower the Altima price $30 per month. I will have to say, the whole day was pretty exciting. Driving around, making deals, having people calling us with numbers, etc. We kind of felt like important business people.
We decided to lease rather than buy at this time. For one thing, we can't afford the car we want right now and if we bought a car we would feel pressured to drive it for the next 10 years. Secondly, I read several articles saying leasing was actually cheaper than buying. Granted, this is in the short term, but over 3-5 years it is less money out of your pocket to lease a car. Thirdly, you get a lot more car for your money to lease. Sarah's Altima is pretty decked out. It has heated seats, leather, Bose sound system, blue tooth, etc. The only option we didn't get was the navigation system and that is basically because we don't really need one. I rarely drive anyplace where I don't know where I am going. The Altima has more features than we need, but we were comparing another Altima with a lot less stuff and it was only like $20 per month cheaper. I thought about it briefly, but considering the whole point of leasing is to get a new, nice car, I thought it was kind of defeating the purpose not to spend a few extra $100 a year to get the nicer stuff. That is less than $1 a day to have the extra features. I think it is worth it.
The whole experience was fun and exciting. There are a lot of really cool cars out there these days with lots of options. It can be a bit overwhelming. But overall we were successful. Below are some pictures of the 2010 Nissan Altima. And I provided some pictures of my 1994 Pontiac Grand Prix for comparison. I think I am getting screwed on this deal.
2010 Nissan Altima:
Who knew Nissan had a goofy wife option?
1994 Pontiac Grand Prix:
If you're hell bent on a brand spankin' new ride, leasing is probably the way to go. I'm a fan of buying used, just a couple of years old. The worst thing you can do is buy brand new. Nothing depreciates more quickly than a brand new car rolling off the lot.
ReplyDeleteSarah's new ride might be much more sexy than the ol' "Big Prize," but those early 90s GPs were great cars. My mom had one (STE model) and drove it for more than a decade.
Overall, I was never a huge fan of the Oldsmobile line, but it was certainly iconic, and holds a huge part of the American auto industry in its history. Over 100 years, and now no more. Nothing lasts forever, and that's just another example.
Were you guys specifically hunting for a black car, or was it just that you really liked that model and were okay with the color? I find that black looks tremendously sleek and sharp when well maintained, but the double edge of that sword is that black shows dirt and every little scratch and ding worse than any color.
Off the subject: Are you waiting restlessly for the new vortex bottles for Miller Lite?
ReplyDeleteI didn't spent a whole lot of time searching for used cars. From what I could tell used cars are somewhat expensive too unless they have a fair amount of miles on them, and then you start to run into the same problems we were having with the Alero. Sarah's Altima had 7 miles on it when we drove it off the lot. I did a fair amount of research and I couldn't really find a valid opinion either way saying you should most definitely avoid leasing or buying. The way I see it, we will drive this car during its peak miles, then get rid of it as soon as it gets into that zone where things statistically start to go wrong. Of course, the flip side to this is that we are always spending money to drive a car.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the Pontiac GPs. My car still runs fine except for the A/C. The engine in that car is great. I felt a little guilty about not looking at GM because my family has always driven GM and Sarah has family who actually work for GM up in Detroit. But they honestly have nothing that interests me. They offer a lot of entry level cars similar to the Cavalier, and then a lot of upper echelon cars like Buick's and Cadillac. And I cannot afford a Corvette. The only car they have in the mid-size saloon class is the Malibu, and that car reminds me of a cheap rental car. I have no idea why they got rid of Pontiac, which to me was the brand they had that would appeal to my demographic the most. Oh well.
Neither one of us are really picky about car colors, as long as it isn't something absurd. I tried to tell Sarah that black would show dirt, but she didn't seem to care. Dings and scratches are taken care of under the warranty at the dealership.