Having guided our host through the gates of car buying hell, we packed the Mini and headed north on the long awaited return to home.
Monday we test drove the front runner, the 2023 Subaru Forester, followed by a 2023 Honda CRV (Honda shared the lot with Subaru) and although Sally swore she wanted new, a 2020 Honda Passport was taken for a short drive. She liked the heft and acceleration of the Pathfinder, but she didn’t like the low gas mileage. The CRV was an underwhelming drive and to get the stuff she wanted it was going to be over her spending cap. The Forester remained the favorite. Tuesday we started at the Hyundai dealer to try out the 2023 Tucson. After a 10 mile test drive, this vehicle jumped to the head of the class, so much so the Nissan Rogue that was possibly next, was skipped.
She really wanted a black car, her current car a 2002 Toyota RAV4 is that color and she likes it. Also a black car diminishes the prominence of the ugly black plastic cladding that is ubiquitous these days. None of the new cars tested were black and there were no black cars on the lot. The Subaru salesman on Monday said he would email her if any might be in their pipeline, but he never did. That and his ineptness in name remembrance and constant sniffing while along for the test drive killed the Subaru sale. Sally even said if the more personable and professionalism Honda salesman could sell her a Subaru, the Forester would have been her choice.
The Hyundai dealer had a still unprepped brand new Tucson in Portifino Gray (see yesterday’s post) on the lot and she though maybe if she could get it ready later in the afternoon and she could test drive it, that might make the sale. They called at 4:30 and we went back to take that test drive that included a trip right back to Casa de Sally for a test fitting in her garage. Ding, Ding, ding we have a winner. They worked up an offer sheet and she said all she needed to do was contact her insurance to see what the coverage would be like. That happened this morning and when we left she was text bargaining with the salesman over the usual dealer added options and their extra markup crap. If all goes well Sally will be driving a new Hyundai Tucson before we get back home on Sunday.