Car Buying

Do We Have An Accord?

In our last installment we left our heroes with a difficult choice, but as anyone who has successfully navigated the tricky waters of matrimony knows, the key is compromise. Brian compromised by not going for the sports car and Donna compromised by not going for the small car.

At 5PM on Saturday afternoon I called Brad, the Honda salesman, and asked what we needed to do to get the ball rolling on buying an Accord Coupe. I told him that it turns out we didn’t really want a blue one after all, “We’d take one in red. Did they have an LX-S in that color?” He thought they did, but he needed to check. I said I’d call him back in a few minutes. When he answered my call he said yes they did. I told him I’d be there in 15 minutes to fill out a credit check application. Our compromising was fine, but what really drove the choice was we could get the car now, because Honda was offering a .9% deal on 60 month loans.

I got to the dealership and Brad and I took a San Marino Red Coupe for a short test drive. When we got back we sat in a little open cube and talked money. I had done my online research by pricing the car on Honda’s web site. Then I headed to Edmond’s and got the invoice figure and what they call a fair market value price, which for this car was about a grand less than invoice (which itself is $2,000 less than list.) I offered several hundred under the list, telling them I had X dollars for a down payment and would finance the remainder at their .9% resulting in a monthly payment of X dollars. That offer also had to include in it the $300 (capped) SC sales tax and any document fees associating with titling and registering the car. I felt this was fair because I knew that they would still be getting more than the invoice price of the car, which is not what they really pay for the car, plus they get to keep any manufacturers hold back money. Brad takes my offer and disappears to the other side of the sales floor to show the figures to the Sales Manager Sam (I didn’t catch his name, but he looks a little like Sam Elliot with white hair and no mustache.) Brad comes back about 5 minutes later (there’s that wait time again) with the famous 4 square box.

One of the squares says $27,000. This is what their sticker on the window reads for the price of the car. They have added wheel locks, mud flaps, a Trunk Condom (a big rubber mat with sides that will catch a whole gallon of spilled milk) and my favorite, the $2500 First Class Finish Package. In the upper right is the figure that really catches my eye, $448 for 60 months. I stand up and offer Brad my hand and say if that’s the best you can do, I’ll be going. He says, “Wait, I’ll see what I can do.”

Now the dancing commences in earnest. He is gone less than a minute, Sam would like to know where I got my figures. I outline for Brad what I did above for you and off he goes again. Brad returns in a skinny minute and says, “They’re working on a better deal.” While we wait Brad fires up a browser and goes to the Honda web site and builds my Accord and sees where I got the list price from.

We are joined by player number three, could be the finance manager or the assistant sales manager. Not only didn’t I pay attention to his title, but I don’t catch the name either. I am too distracted by the fact that he could pass for the John Candy character in the movie Splash and wondering if it would be impolite to wipe my palm on my pants to dry off the sweat he left behind during the handshake. John Candy has a computer printout that shows the list price (just what I said it was) and then their cost that they have in the car with the options and all. John points to a hand sketch of a scale marked in little increments going from 2% to 9% and tells me that dealers need to make somewhere in that profit range to stay in business. He asks if I felt they weren’t entitled to make a little money, so could I please add $5 more to my monthly payment. I look at him like he is speaking Swahili and mention that he can go ahead and take off the wheel locks, mud flaps and remove the trunk tray as I don’t want them. But to show them I was a sport I offered him the $300 up front. John tells me that it would cost money to remove the mud flaps and wheel locks but they would remove the trunk tray. Neither of us mention the $2500 First Class Finish because I think they know I know that this is nothing more than an updated version of the 70’s and 80’s Rust Proofing Pure Dealer Profit Scam. To quote Captain Jack Sparrow to Will Turner, I say to John Candy, “Do we have an accord?” (a nice play on words, if I don’t say so myself.)

I tell Brad my wife is going to have dinner on the table in a few minutes, I better get home and I’ll be back on Monday after work to finalize the paperwork. They don’t want me to leave (maybe figuring I regret that $300 and not come back) so Sam Elliot is back and says let’s finish up the offer sheet and run your credit before you go, it’ll only take 10 minutes. I tell Sam that I’ll do that, but I’ll be coming in on Monday with $50 less if the dinner gets ruined and I have to take my wife out to eat. They don’t have a real figure to work with because I’ve got them rushing, so I am asked to sign something that says I will purchase this car if the following conditions can be met, my new X dollars down and my X dollar a month payment for 60 months. Everybody seems happy and I leave telling Brad I would see him at about 4:30 on Monday to pick up the car.

This is getting kind of long winded, so come back tomorrow night for the tale of today’s stop on the Brian & Donna Buy A New Car Tour.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1000

120,000 Hondas!

Yesterday the Brian & Donna Buy A New Car Tour came east both physically and figuratively. But first a couple of house cleaning issues.

1) Yesterday I mentioned the Red Sox were 2 and 10 after their win, but they were actually 3 and 10. After today’s 8 to 1 win over Toronto they still have the worst record in baseball at 4 – 10, but jumped to second to last in run differential.

2) Somewhere near Riverwatch Parkway and I-20 on the way home from Augusta yesterday the Emperor eased past the 120,000 mile mark. That is an average of 1.85 miles for every hour we’ve owned it.

Our last car test drive event was over in Augusta and consisted of all Korean cars, yesterday we stayed closer to home and shopped Japanese at Honda Cars of Aiken. And while there actually were only 106 new Hondas on the lot, it seemed like there were 120,000 to choose from. As we walked through the showroom door we were instantly greeted by someone and we said we were there to test drive a couple cars. He said he was a manager of some sort and he would get us a salesman. True to his word, within seconds, Brad arrived and asked what were we interested in. We wanted to drive a Civic Coupe and an Accord Coupe. Brad asked what color and we told him it didn’t matter as long as it was a base LX model, but when we buy one it’ll be blue. He came back in less than five minutes with a dealer plate and a key (we like this experience better already.)

First up was a Civic in Royal Blue Pearl. This is the smaller car and the equivalent to Hyundai’s Elantra and while not nearly as swoopy in styling it is still a nice looking car. We are both instantly 100% more comfortable in it than the Elantra. Right legroom for me as the driver is acceptable, but the left leg is stopped short by the dead pedal (which should be easliy remedied by just taking it out.) There is a large digital speedometer above and forward (almost a HUD) of the large tach and other gauges, interesting and slightly quirky. We start our drive and I take a turn off US1 towards Graniteville and at the stop sign I ask what is considered a reasonable test drive. Brad replies from the back, “Whatever you want.” I briefly consider a left turn up Chalk Bed Rd, but Donna says we need to cross some railroad tracks (a convertible’s nemesis), so I take a right and drive through “downtown” Graniteville. This is a great test because along with those railroad tracks there is one section of road that probably started life as concrete sections, like those found on some interstates, so we got to drive over all those seams, cluh-thunk, cluh-thunk, clu-thunk. Each transition is felt and heard in the car, not as rough as a Miata, but definitely inexpensive, small car-like. Overall we both like the car, it is small, but really the right size for us. Donna is almost sold, but I have a couple of reservations. Including the very lame, “They are too common.” On any given day, there are probably 150 cars in our company parking lot and 3 or 4 recent vintage Civic Coupes and at least twice as many as that of Civic Sedans.

Next up we drive an Alabaster Silver Metallic Accord Coupe. For a car that appears to dwarf the Civic, the interior room in the front of the Accord feels exactly the same size as the Civic (and the numbers bear it out.) The dash is more my old school liking in that there are a two large circular analog gauges (tach & speedo) surrounded by a temp and fuel gauge with an odometer in the middle bottom. The extra 600 pounds of this car make drive through bumpy Graniteville much smoother and quieter, more what I was looking for in a new car. That extra 600 pounds of the Accord over the Civic is almost exactly offset by the 50 extra horsepower it has, so the seat of the pants acceleration feel is about the same. Neither is probably much quicker than the Miata in a straight line, but there is not the same sense of speed as in the open topped car (which is both good and bad.) When we get back to the dealer I pull it along side the previously driven Civic. Donna jumps in the driver’s seat of each car for crucial short driver test. Amazingly she feels she has a better sense of the knowing where the front of the larger Accord is compared to the Civic. We look inside at each trunk and just like in the interior, there doesn’t appear to be any more room in the Accord’s than the Civic and the Civic’s is shaped better. We both like this car too, me more than Donna.

We thank Brad profusely and take home a Civic and an Accord brochure along with two of his business cards, one for me to call if we decide on the Accord and one for Donna to call if we opt for the Civic.

It is a tough call between the two. We both like the looks of the Civic better and the Civic’s blue is nicer shade too. The Civic is the right size car and really all we need. As a plus it is $5k less in price, but to me it rides much choppier and noisier, sort of like it is $5k less. Now, comparing the Accord Coupe to the Genesis Coupe, is where the whole thing falls apart. The Hyundai is about the same size car, but doesn’t look as bloated. The Genesis is a rear wheel drive with 210 HP and because it is turbo charged, a much flatter torque curve with the peak appearing at half the RPM of the Accord. The Genesis Coupe is a sports car and the Accord Coupe is a sheep in wolf’s clothing.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 998

Two Hundred Thirty Four

That is the number of days in the countdown widget until we get a new car and that equates to Saturday November 26th. According to a web article I just read (Five Tips That Can Save New Car Buyers a Bundle) that is pretty much the best time to buy a new car. According to Tip #2 the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are the lowest for new car showroom traffic. And Tip #3 the best week to buy a car is past the 3rd week of the month. Saturday is the only negative as that is the busiest day of the week at dealerships. May have to add a couple days to push it until Monday or Tuesday of the following week.

Right now the front runner in my book is the Genesis Coupe, but it has a couple of negatives. As for the co-signer of the loan goes, it is the fact that it just might be too sporty. My concern is that the car has its very own active internet forum, GenCoupe.com. This means there are also several “tuner shops” with loads of neat gee-gaws to make your car your own. In just a few hours I have imaginably spent several hundred dollars already. There are the OEM fog lights to be added to my base level car, $79. Replacing the stock Hyundai logos with spiffy winged ones from the Korean version of the car, $99. Rear window spoiler, $225 and matching rear lip spoiler, $245.

We have still to drive the Accord Coupe and so far, with out driving it, all we have for a negative is Honda’s stupid Big Deal commercials.

Of course there are a couple of wildcards still out there, the Genesis coupe is do for a mild refresh and maybe they will perk up the interior (it looks a little dated compared to the new Sonata and Elantra) and maybe they will do something about the pinched look of the frontend. Or maybe they will make it worse… The other is that maybe by this fall details of the next generation Miata might be available and we will be tempted to wait for it into 2012.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 987

Where Does That Leave Us?

Right now the top two contenders for our next car are the Hyundai Genesis Coupe and the Kia Optima EX. There are a couple of cars left to try before we make a final decision, a Honda Accord Coupe and a Hyundai Sonata SE.

While I loved the Genesis Coupe, the downside of this car is that it might be too sporty in nature. We already will have a sports car in the stable and we were looking more for a touring car. And frankly, Donna was looking forward to being driven to work in relative comfort and not always having to brace herself against the g-forces generated while I try and late brake, nip the apex of every turn and accelerate briskly towards my next cornering opportunity. This is where the Accord might come in. The coupe, like the Prelude before it, is nothing much more than an Accord sedan all tarted up. A sheep in wolf’s clothing if you will.

The Sonata SE will be my last chance to dance with the supermodel of sedans, but I am hoping it will have a more connected to the road feel ALA the Optima. Part of the SE package are 18″ wheels with lower profile tires and what the manufacturer calls “Sport-tuned suspension and steering” which sounds a lot like what the Optima mentions in its brochure for the standard suspension setup.

Both the Optima and Sonata have a major fault and that is size. Donna had a heck of a time trying to get the right seating position in them. I’m thinking maybe some of it was the pressure of having both myself and a salesman stand out side looking at her fiddling with the seat controls in the dealers lot. I’m betting if it was just me in a quiet spot she could get it easier. Plus some of it will be driving the car and learning where the external edges of the it are.

Who knows, maybe the Accord Coupe will be the winner. We used to be a Honda family and even owned a couple of Accord “coupes” back in the day. Our 1978 car was a 2-door hatchback that was about the same length, with a 7″ shorter wheelbase and 500 pounds lighter than today’s Honda Fit! It was Honda’s “big” car. If the Accord Coupe is not the answer, we may just end up with a Genesis Coupe. We saw one pass by us at a corner today and even our anti-red bias didn’t prevent us from liking the car in Tsukuba Red.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 979

KIA Kicked It Away

When heading home after leaving the Mazda dealer on the Brian & Donna Buy A New Car Tour our route took us right by the KIA dealer. I waved at them as we went by. Donna suggested we go back and drive the Optima because we had a certificate to get a $25 gift card for test driving one sometime during the months of February or March. I doubled back and parked next door in the used car area. A local radio station was doing a remote broadcast from out front, loud urban hip-hop is not on any radio preset of ours, but they had a grill going and a sausage dog with a Sprite went down nice as we wandered the lot unmolested. The Optima had one strike against it going in, in that the colors it is available in, with he exception of the Spicy Red, were picked out by defecting members of the old Soviet Politburo – white, silver, light gray, dark gray, dark red and black (it does come in a bright blue, but only in the high zoot turbo model.)

Walking back towards the Miata after getting our fill of looking at the pine pollen covered cars we passed right by the showroom and there was one salesman standing near the front door just staring off into the distance. Donna said, “If he doesn’t approach us, we just keep on going.” I said, “Nah, I’ll walk up to him so we can test drive a car.” I showed him the certificate and asked if we could drive one. He looked at it kind of sideways and said come on in and held the door for us. I’m not sure if his reaction to the certificate was, what is this or oh, no, not another one, but after about a five minutes he came back out of the sales manager’s office with their part of the form filled in. He made a copy of my license and said, “I’ll be back up in a minute, let me get a car.” After another five minute wait, he pulled up in a Metal Bronze LX. The color isn’t half bad, but it is not going to going to get the neighbor’s all jealous and oohing and aahing over it.

As I set about adjusting the rear view mirrors (both inside and out) our friendly salesman proceeded to count off the interior and exterior features of the automobile from the backseat. Unfortunately he kept that up for the entire 5 mile loop of our test drive. It was like he memorized the glossy brochure produced by Kia’s marketing department and was reciting it for us. He tripped himself up though when he veered off the script and mentioned that the Optima was recently picked the #1 best buy. Donna asked him by who and he didn’t have the answer, he hemmed and hawed and finally I volunteered J.D Powers and he said, “That’s it.” (I looked when we got home and it was really Cars.com 2 months ago.)

While not exactly appliance looking like a Camry, the Optima is kind of a wallflower next to its cousin the Sonata. It’s saving grace is that it isn’t the seller the Hyundai is, so it will retain a bit of exclusivity. The interior is very modern looking compared to my 7 year-old Miata, but looks dated compared to the Sonata. The surprising thing was the driving experience, the Sonata drove like a big fluffy Old Man With A Hat car, but the Optima felt like a driver’s car with nicely weighted and crisp steering feel. While not exactly BMW-like, a 5 Series sized car at half the price makes this a winner in the cost/fun ratio. The handling and engine response wasn’t up to Genesis Coupe levels, but all and all I could see me owning this car.

The big down side to the Optima was once again size. In the Sonata Donna had to jack up the seat to the highest level it could go, slide the seat way forward and then still do a little leaning forward to see where the hood ended. This car as expected, was the same way and to make matters worse the Optima’s head rest was positioned in a manner that poked her in the back of the head no matter the height it was placed at.

When were were done test driving the Optima we asked if we could try out their Elantra sized car, the Forte. The Forte comes in a coupe form which is a plus, but it’s exterior styling is in serious need of updating. Because of the differences in the Sonata and Optima, maybe the Forte would surprise us by being quieter than the Elantra, more comfortable and a more engaging drive. We never found out.

We asked if we could test drive the little black Koupe (their spelling, not mine) that we had parked the Optima next to. Our salesman said, “I’ll go get the keys.” We waited the five minutes required by the Secret Car Salesman Manual. Then we waited about 3 or 4 more minutes more before walking back by the showroom to the Emperor and driving off. Maybe he sensed we weren’t buying today, so not worth the effort or he got stuck trying to find those keys, but either way he lost himself and his company any chance at our money.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 979

Miata Takes A Fall

Stop number two on Saturday’s Brian & Donna Buy A New Car Tour was the Mazda dealer. We test drove a 3rd generation Miata way back in 2005 and didn’t really like it. The back up plan to this current car shopping extravaganza was that we could always trade in the current one and buy a new Miata. Today’s second look was to see if still was a viable option.

A salesman greeted us and after a bit of chat we asked to drive a Miata. We picked a Copper Red Sport which is the closest to what we would probably buy. He took my license and insurance card inside to make a copy and get a key. He came back out a few minutes later and went to start the car, but hopped back out apologizing that there was almost no gas in the car and he’d have to go back inside and get the key to another one. We pointed at a red Sport Model and off he went again. This time he was gone for a lot longer time. We had time to peruse the other cars on the lot. I pointed at a Mazda 6 in a similar color, dark blue, as the Sonata we drove and asked Donna what she thought of it looks-wise compared to the Hyundai, her reply, “They look the same, I can’t tell the difference.” There were a bevy of 3’s and these don’t really appear to be “small” cars. There was a 5-door in a bright blue that we agreed was too bright and there was a grayish blue that might have been acceptable, but none of Mazda’s other cars were anything we wanted to be seen in.

We got bored looking around and went inside the showroom to see where our salesman was. I found him sitting in front of a computer screen looking at something. When he saw me he got up, mumbled something about a key and headed off. I peeked over at what he was looking at and realized it was the Mazdausa website for this dealer’s inventory. He was already trying to figure out how much to try and sell the car to me for instead of getting the key, and taking care of that little detail while we were out driving the car. After he disappeared we noticed a Miata sitting open on the floor, so we went over and got in it, me behind the wheel and her in the passenger seat. It didn’t feel as much like as a bathtub as it did the first time, maybe from driving a few regular cars today the door sills didn’t seem that high. I think we both felt it and were ready to chuck all our grandiose plans for a second car and just replace the Emperor with a new Miata. Until we changed seats.

Way back the first time we got in a 3rd generation Miata Donna complained that she didn’t have nearly the foot well space in it as she did in our current car. I knew that they had encroached on into that area with the rerouting of the exhaust manifold, creating a small hump along the transmission tunnel near the seat. What I didn’t remember was that they also shortened the leg room on that side by 3 to 4 inches. There was no way for me to stretch my legs straight out and get comfortable. Not only that it made my bent legs end up near the shifter which would be intrusive to Donna’s driving. This was a deal breaker. By this time our salesman had finally made it out to the lot with the key and he was looking around for us. We went out and thanked him for his time, telling him of our discovery that Mazda had short-sheeted the passenger side of the car and there was no way we were going be buying a Miata. Hot, hungry and tired we headed home.

Come back tomorrow for the final installment where our heroes help themselves to some hot food, drive a car and get a cold shoulder.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 979

Made In Montgomery

First stop on yesterday’s Brian & Donna Buy A New Car Tour was the Hyundai dealer and first up for a test drive was the Sonata, the car I have been lusting after for some time. It’s assets are it is a big car, nice looking (inside and out), comfortable riding, and quiet. On the debit side is it is big (Donna had to jack the seat up as far as it would go to see over the hood), comfortable riding, and quiet (no real connection to the driving experience.) In short, it is a perfect rental car. I felt a little like George Webber after an evening with Jenny Hanley.

As we waited for our salesman to get the keys for vehicle #2, the Elantra, we wandered the lot a bit and a bright yellow Genesis Coupe caught Donna’s eye. This car was on my initial list, but I crossed it off after (seeing one in traffic one day) I queried Donna on its looks and she pooh-poohed it.

The Elantra it was smaller, but a better fit to what we are used to and still very nice looking inside and out, but it was not, as expected, as comfortable and quiet as its big brother. The deal breaker for us was that neither of us could get comfortable in the seats.

Car number three was a Genesis Coupe 2.0T Premium with an automatic transmission. Not the yellow one, it was the 3.8 Track model and about 10 grand over our budget. Plus, while the yellow is eye catching and an awesome color for a car, neither of us want to own one, but we applaud those who do. Ahhh, this car is more like it. The Sonata was Papa Bear’s chair, too big and the Elantra was Baby Bear’s chair, too small, but the Genesis Coupe was just right. It was comfortable, there was gobs of interior space and plenty of driving experience for Brian. The Premium level car would not be on our shopping list, the $4k uptick in price included only one thing of marginal value, a sunroof. The proximity key with push button start turned Donna off and for me the nav system was the stumbling block, I didn’t even look at it once and I’m not sure I want to have to push a button saying I agree to anything just to drive to the store. But that said, the base 2.0T coupe was right up our alley, so this was the brochure we took home from the dealer and the one he wrote down on his sheet as what we were interested in. In Mirabeau Blue.

Tomorrow I’ll let you know how it went at the next car dealer we visited, Mazda.