Cars, cars, cars

Okay, I have a few minutes and so I wanted to record in the annals of time my experience with car industry. Now, one thing you may or may not know about me is that I have to study something from EVERY angle, every possibility before I sign on the dotted line. It doesn't matter what I'm buying, I have the need to know 1) that I'm getting the best and 2) I am paying the lowest price. I'm sure it drives my wife nuts some times. When she wants something, she just buys it, no worries, no hesitation.

So, a couple of months ago, my partners and I decide that we are all going to get new cars. How exciting! How TIME CONSUMING! Now, I really don't know too much about cars. For the first 13 years of our marriage we were a single car family. When we finally had to break down and get another car I ended up getting a Dodge Neon mainly for the fact that my brother-in-law Ryan had just bought one. Pretty boring eh?

Now it was time to get a new car. A good friend of mine, Norm, bought a Volkswagen Passat. I thought that was a very nice car. Since I had no idea of anything else, I decided that is what I wanted. I drove both the 2.0T and also the 3.6 liter model. Both were nice cars. I didn't really like the dealership we went to. Sales people

I started talking to friends and family and these are the cars that I ended up taking a look at.

Acura TL

Infiniti G35X

BMW 330xi

Volvo S60

Cadillac CTS

Lincoln Zephyr

I have to say that the Lincoln and Cadillac didn’t interest me one bit. They try to be in the same class as the rest of them but they fail miserably. The interior wasn’t very nice (seemed a bit cheap), not very many features, and certainly not the power the others had.

One of my partners really wants a Volvo. I had a friend in high school that drove one. I remember coming home from Logan one year (from a basketball camp) and we drove most of the way home going 110+ mph. You can’t do that any more. Anyhow, the Volvo (at least the S60 we drove) was a bit too small. The other thing I didn’t like was that if you wanted any extra feature it was fairly pricey. Cross that off my list.

My friend Matt, owner of ScoobyTuner, told me to go drive the BMW and I would like that the best. He was right. I drove the all-wheel drive beefy engine version. It was a fun ride. Marcella loved it too. I had never been in a car where you could accelerate getting ON the freeway (going 100 mph). The problem was, I just couldn’t see myself driving this car. Too me, it has an image that just isn’t me. Cross that one out.

That left the Infiniti and the Acura. I really liked both. The G35x was faster but I didn’t like the interior as much. In fact, I was really bothered by the interior. The buttons for the power seats were in a goofy spot, the control panels were lit with outdated orange lights. The rest of the controls were not easy to figure. But I liked the drive. I liked the style of the car. I could drive one.

Everything that I didn’t like about the Infiniti, I loved about the Acura. Honda really knows how to make cars. Sure it wasn’t as powerful as the G35x. But heck, it gets about 6-7 mpg better. That’s a plus. And is rear-wheel drive THAT much better? If you talk to the BMW people or Infiniti, they will tell you it does. Well, I figured since I wasn’t actually a professional car driver, the front wheel drive would work just fine for me.

The Acura has an outstanding transmission. By far the smoothest of all of the cars. The seats are VERY comfortable. Easy to manage controls. My favorite part has got to be the stereo system. The Acura comes standard surround sound DVD audio. If you haven’t heard of this OR heard this you are in for a treat. Truly remarkable sound. It comes with a 3 month subscription to XM satellite radio. I’m learning to enjoy that. If I’m the only one in the car, the music is loud. It reminds me when I was a teenager and when my parents were gone, I would pull the big speakers out and face them a couple of feet apart. Then I would turn up the music and lie in between the speakers. Nice, eh? Give DVD audio a test (whether in a car or at home). You’ll love it.

I got my car from Mike Hale Acura. There are two Acura dealerships in Utah. I also worked with the one in Vegas and the one in Boise. The price wasn’t good enough for me to get it out of state. I felt in the end that the MH folks gave me a fair deal. Of course I read tons of pages on-line. Consumer Reports, Edmunds, and
a number of others. I read on-line forums. Anything that I could to see what kind of deals other people were getting. I think you could safely say, that for a couple of weeks I was pretty obsessed with getting a new Acura.

Well, I was going to write more but I figure this is long enough. It was fun shopping for cars. I felt like I was in control, I was calling the shots. The salespeople didn’t bother me. I felt like they had to work for my business.

Anyhow, it’s been a couple of weeks now. I enjoy driving to work and back. I have washed it once but the weather has been pretty crappy lately.

Wanna ride?