On the last day of the year in 2010, my husband and I leased a 2011 VW Tiguan. It was not the vehicle I originally was planning on leasing, but I ended up loving it and driving away happy.
As a personal trainer with my own business, the Tiguan was everything I could ever want. It has a sports mode, so I can pass other slower drivers easily, and it's comfortable. Mine was pretty basic. It's got bluetooth, which lets me connect my iphone to the car and listen to my music. That was my favorite feature of the vehicle. I also love that it can fit into a compact parking space, in fact it fit just as well as my old Toyota Yaris did.
It fit all of my boot camp equipment, and was an ideal height for me (at 5'2") to reach the trunk door in order to pull it shut.
Fast Forward to the year 2013, January, when my daughter was born. Immediately, I started realizing that a vehicle I believed to be perfect for a single child family, was not so. No, Volkswagen's crossover SUV is not quite what a family with young children would fantasize about having. In my car's defense, it is still a fabulous height for loading and unloading the car seat, however that's about where it ends. The only thing I can fit in my trunk now is my stroller, which isn't that bulky. We bought a Britax Chaperone car seat, yeah it's big, and it weighs more than a small puppy (around 10 lbs), but it should still fit reasonably well in the back seat. AND it does... if you move the passenger up a little closer than comfort to the dashboard, and you like having no leg room as a passenger (even at my height the leg room is pretty shitty).
I realize I'm being picky here, but I have new needs and desires of a vehicle. And maybe if it had tinted windows, or a faster working A/C I would feel happier about it, but in Austin, Texas, it gets blazing hot, and nothing makes me crabbier than being packed in a hot car with no leg room and having to pack my groceries in weird spots in the car because my stroller is taking up the whole trunk.
So the hunt for a new vehicle is on! We have to turn in our lease in the next 2 months, and I have decided to get something different. I'm currently considering the following vehicles:
- Nissan Murano
- Ford Escape
- Honda CRV
- Toyota Rav4
I will be judging them on
- Trunk Space
- Gas Mileage
- Price
- Bells and Whistles (you know all the internal doodads and features)
- Internal Vehicle Leg Room/ Car Seat's ability to fit without moving the passenger seat up
- And overall experience while driving
I do have to admit, I am a huge sucker for a beautiful car. My dream car is something sporty that no child would have any chance of riding in, mostly because it wouldn't have a back seat... but I'm going to have to wait on that one... till I'm rich and my children are front seat riders probably. Despite that, I have always had a thing for the crossover SUV's so I'm hoping one of these won't fail me.
I did read that the Ford Escape was on the top 10 list of unreliable vehicles done by Consumer Reports, which makes me uncomfortable. You can read that article here (http://autos.yahoo.com/news/the-10-least-reliable-cars-181031192.html). The Nissan Pathfinder is on there too, so I decided to try the Murano instead. I think the Rogue is butt ugly.
So today I will be test driving and seeing what kind of deals they can promise me. I love messing with car dealers. I made one cry once. I think she was trying to go by some manual, it was really weird. She kept saying "what do you want?" and I kept saying "I want the Rav4" and she kept saying "then let's get the Rav4" and I kept saying "it's too expensive" and then she would repeat "yes, but what do you want?" This went on and on until finally I was like... "Lady... you aren't going to persuade me to purchase something out of my price range with some weird illogical argument. Well in that case, I want a freaking unicorn that farts rainbows and transforms into a jaguar XK... can you get that for me?" Then she started crying and EVEN SAID IT AGAIN... "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" I honestly wondered if she was having a stroke. Then they sent me over to their financial guru who tried to trick me into thinking I was getting a better deal by offering me a longer loan option where the payments were just spaced out more and I would've spent MORE in interest... like I'm some sort of moron. Needless to say, I ended up leaving and going to the VW dealership for a much less psychotic experience.
I'm hoping today goes better. I will report back soon!
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