Blog Number 305

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

The long road to purchasing a vehicle to replace our minivan that was totaled almost came to an end tonight.  Before I explain about the vehicle we almost bought tonight, first let me tell you about the journey.  The plan was simple, create a short list of vehicles that met our criteria, test drive them, and then buy one.  But, what ones should make the list?  Not wanting to miss something I decided to start with every vehicle on the market even though some of them were not ever going to make the final cut (like say for instance the Hummer H2 or the Porshe Cayenne).  This amounted to 298 vehicles.  Our first level of criteria was safety.  We were only going to consider cars with 5 star ratings for front and side crash tests and 4 star for rollover crash tests (there were only 2 that had 5 star rollover rating).  I researched all 298 vehicles at SafeCar.gov and started a spreadsheet.  This narrowed down the list to only 54 choices.  Some vehicles dropped off due to poor ratings (like the Chevy Trailblazer - 3 star front driver side rating; the Volkswagen New Beetle - 3 star rear side crash rating, or the Lincoln Navigator - 3 star rollover crash rating) while others dropped off due to lack of crash data (like the Jaguar X-Type Wagon, the MINI Clubman, and the Audi S4 Cabriolet).  The only other safety rating we considered was rollover percentage.  We decided on 17% to be the cut off point and this narrowed down the list to a mere 44 choices (losing the Hyundai Tuscan and Mitsubishi Outlander which each had a 19% rollover percentage).  Once we had the safest cars listed, then we focused more on the financial end of things starting with gas mileage.  I researched this on FuelEconomy.gov.  We decided the cut off line was 23 mpg which narrowed the field down to 34 choices (losing the Acura MDX at 20 mpg and the Suburu Tribeca at 21 mpg).  Only at this point did we consider sticker price (as listed on the manufacturer's website).  We stopped at $25,000 starting price and just like that we were down to 22 safe, fuel efficient and reasonably prices cars (losing the Acura XL at $46,280 and the Buick Enclave at $33,995).  Of these 22, 14 were sedans, 5 were SUVs and 3 were minivans.  From the very beginning (when there were 298 on the list) the wife was leaning toward the Honda CR-V and I was leaning towards the Chevy HHR.  To our joy, each made the final cut.

Once we were to our short list, the wife proceeded to test drive as many as she could starting with the manufacturers that had the most number of vehicles on the list (Hyundai, Chevy and Suburu each had 3 in the cut).  Meanwhile I filled in some of the gaps that could be tiebreakers like insurance costs.  The wife would dutifully grade each after a test drive and give me a number between 1 and 10.  She quickly decided that a sedan was not for her and just like that we were down to 8 choices...

SUVs

Chevy HHR
Honda CR-V
Hyundai Santa Fe
Mazda CX-7
Suburu Outback

Vans

Dodge Grand Caravan
Hyundai Entourage
Kia Sedona

The wife was doing well and dealing with all kinds of salesmen.  She was giving each one a fair rating (even though my beloved HHR got only a 4 out of 10 due to poor visibility) and all was going well until she drove the Hyundai Entourage.  It was at this point that the search came to a stand still.  Evidently when she took this vehicle out for a test run a few things happened...

• A bright light shown around the van
• A band of angels came down round about the van and began to sing softly
• Jesus himself appeared in the passenger seat and during this epiphany he told her that he personally had selected not only the make and model but this exact van for her

I received the phone call 12 seconds after she left the car lot and I knew I was done for.  Still I encouraged her to continue on down the list and she did manage to make it through to the Kia Sedona (which is made on the same assembly line as the Entourage) and a quick test of the Mazda then just like that the Suburu and Dodge were struck from the running without even a test run.

So anyway, we found a 2007 Entourage and a 2006 Sedona that were to our liking and I actually went out tonight with every intent of purchasing one of them.  A quick call to the Entourage dealer and we found out that it was sold on Saturday so we went to the Kia place and found out that since the test drive, the price had come down $2,000.  I test drove it and it is really nice (though there were no angels that I could see) but in the end, the salesman would not budge on his price so after investing about an hour of my life, I walked out without the van.  There are 20 other Sedonas with in 20 miles of my house and 4 or 5 of them are about 9 miles away so the search continues for now.

It is a little inconvenient to only have one car right now but it is cost effective despite the $4 / day it costs me extra in gas to have the wife drive me to work, return home, drive to my work to pick me up and then drive home.  I am saving about $2 per day in insurance and am making about $1 per day in interest on the $10,000 I have ready for a down payment.  Figure in that the wife is onely driving me to work 4 days a week and I am breaking even overall.  In summary, I am in no hurry to buy a new vehicle.  Phew, what a long post but I still have time for...

Random Bad Quality Pictures With My New Cell Phone

This past Sunday our ABF had parking lot duty.  We get to wear these stylish yellow vests and tell big fancy cars when to stop and when to go.  Our goals are simple.  We are to ensure no one is killed.  Bonus points for no one being hurt.  As you can see, it was really windy but I still had a good time and we will not have this duty for 3 months or so.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon