Which Car to Buy?
So tonight I finally sat down and went through the 1999 Consumer Reports buyer's guide to see what they had to say about cars.
I started with the class of car I'm most likely to get: A compact (well, I suppose it'd be a sub compact, really). I see that the Honda Civics are about the same as they were when I bought mine nine years ago: Great reliability although with electrical and brake problems as they age, maintain their value very well, generally good all-around cars. I even checked out the Honda web site and saw that the MSRP is around $12K for the sort of car I want. (And Mom says that she thinks they're going for around $10K lately, since it's the end of the model year.)
John has a Honda Civic hatchback, and I'd be happy to have his car, albeit with a manual transmission and in dark blue.
Then I liked at some other cars in the book. The Toyota Corolla seems like a decent car, but not as good as the Civic. The Nissans are not highly rated, as I'd expected. (My friend Charlie in Madison used to have a Nissan, and did not care for it that much.) Mazda apparently no longer makes the 323, and whatever replaced it was not very highly rated. I don't remember being especially impressed with the Mitsubishi car, and as for American cars, well, I'm not much for American cars. Only the Geos and Saturns interest me, and the Geo Metro is not for me. I don't think Saturn makes a compact car.
So, really, if I want to buy a small car, the Civic is the only thing I'm likely to consider.
So the other question is whether I want to buy a larger car. The Honda Accord seems like a fine car, as does the Toyota Camry. I have several friends who have Saturns, and though Consumer Reports considers them "unremarkable", I might consider one of those. I'd at least test-drive one. And Karen has a Geo Prizm, which she likes quite a bit.
But, do I want a larger car? With lower fuel economy (talking a drop from the 35 MPG vicinity to the 25 MPG vicinity) and a larger turn radius? And no hatchback? Sure, it'd be bigger, but do I need something bigger? I'm not too enthusiastic about that. I'll probably at least test-drive an Accord to decide, but...
So it feels like I've virtually made my choice already. I just need to go out and verify that I'm right, maybe check out multiple dealers for price purposes, make sure the variety and color of Civic I want is still available - and do it.
All easier said than done, I suspect.
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