My Long and Winding Road to a New Car - Part 1

Back in June 2008, my wife and I found ourselves test driving a new Toyota Camry hybrid and a new Nissan Altima hybrid. I remember feeling a bit reluctant about the whole ordeal and wondering how we ended up behind the steering wheel of these hybrid vehicles.

My wife and I had been discussing getting rid of our darn 1997 Ford Taurus wagon. Both of us have sour feelings towards that car because we had spent almost 3 years trying to track down an electrical problem that would intermittently, but frequently, drain the battery overnight. Ford mechanics couldn't find the problem after being at the shop several times over the course of a couple of years. It wasn't until we took the car to a Midas shop, where the mechanics knew what they were doing, that we were able to track down the vicinity of the problem. Midas told us that they didn't have the equipment to track it down within that system, so we had to take it back to Ford. Needless to say, the Ford mechanics finally found the problem (thanks to Midas), but they told us the part is no longer available.

Cripes! The car was barely 11 years old and Ford doesn't have the part for their own vehicle?! Heck, the car had less than 75,000 kms on the odometer and we look after our cars very well, yet the darn thing was having electrical aneurisms?! For you Twitter users out there, file this under #Ford #fail.

So I had ventured to a Pick-Your-Part and yanked the module out of another Ford Taurus. Interestingly enough, that particular module was already yanked out of many of the Ford Taurus cars in the yard, so I had to go through several before finding one still intact. Of course, there wasn't an easy way to tell if that module was flakey or not, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Despite not having any electrical problems with the Taurus since the module was replaced a few months prior, we had very little confidence in this used ill-gotten-booty, and started up the conversation of simply replacing the car. With both of our cars having fairly big engines (3.8-litre and 3.5-litre), we thought it would be a good idea to be a little more environmentally conscientious, and that's when we got on the hybrid vehicle kick. Hybrids have been around for several years already. The Toyota Prius was already 2nd generation, and the North American car manufacturers had jumped into the hybrid waters.

After a little research, we discovered that the North American hybrids didn't really offer much fuel economy, Nissan was using Toyota's hybrid technology until they develop their own solution, and Honda's hybrid offering was a flop. But yet, my wife and I decided to test drive a couple of hybrids... maybe with some hope that these would fit our environmental checklist for the next while, or maybe to confirm that this idea should be put on hold for a while.

We were quite impressed at how well these technologies worked together in the hybrid cars we test drove. And we found it very interesting that it seemed Nissan's implementation of Toyota's technology was noticeably better... more power, better acceleration, smoother shifting, and the Toyota significantly hesitated when trying to start off quickly from a standstill, which was a bit unnerving when trying to negotiate a left turn between oncoming cars. My wife really liked the idea of being able to drive quietly on battery power through a few blocks in the neighbourhood before the gas engine was needed.

We actually found ourselves negotiating a price on the Nissan Altima hybrid after our test drive in June 2008, but walked away from the deal feeling that they weren't budging enough on the price. In hindsight, I think we may have been caught up with the thought of being greener with a hybrid vehicle but weren't entirely convinced the hybrid selection was quite on the mark for our actual needs. We certainly weren't saving any money by going with a greener car... the $5,000 (or so) premium on a hybrid over it's non-hybrid model equates to several tankfuls over several years before we'd make that money back.

Winter had now rolled in and that electrical plague on the Ford showed up again... intermittent dead battery. My wife and I struck up the conversation of getting rid of that beastly car again and buying a new car, but thought it would be best to hang in until spring since the Christmas credit card bills had yet to arrive. However, I noticed the symptoms of the dead battery plague to be a little different... after boosting the beast and driving it around a bit, it didn't hold any charge. Could it be a dead-dead battery? This battery was barely a year old. To the shop I went, and, sure enough, the battery wouldn't hold a charge. I had put the new battery in and didn't have any problems the rest of the winter, so conversations about replacing the car had sort of subsided.

It was now March 2009, and spring was starting to rear its pretty little head... and so were conversations of replacing "that Ford". Yes, we were still referring to it as "that Ford" with a little distaste in pronunciation. But wait! As March marched on, I received an email from Nissan inviting me to participate in a special Canada-only creative contest to try to win 1 of 50 Nissan cubes. It wasn't merely one car being given away, but fifty cars. Wow! I can be creative, sometimes, and this could be fun.

We set aside the discussions of buying a new car as I ventured down the road to try to win a Nissan cube. My wife, however, had no interest in my participation in the contest, and consequently, no interest in the Nissan cube. We had checked it out at a local car show, and the car really didn't appeal to her. But, hey, if I won a cube, she wasn't going to complain about (virtually) free stuff. After all, I was the one spending my free time chasing the elusive prize, and she was happy I was preoccupied with something other than TV and video games.

Nissan's Hypercube contest dragged through a few months, and on June 23, 2009, the 50 winners were announced. Alas, I was not selected to be one of the 50 Nissan cube ambassadors. The next day, my wife told me it was time to get serious and quit screwing around... time to shop for a new car.

That weekend, we took the new 3rd generation Prius for a whirl. Very impressive... They seemed to have dealt with the lag encountered when trying to start quickly from a start. There still was a little lag, but not nearly as bad as when we test drove the Camry hybrid. The Nissan Altima hybrid still seemed to be better, but it was manageable and no longer unnerving on the Prius. The interior materials were much nicer... more inline with what a $30k+ car should be like. And the styling was more refined. This certainly was something we could seriously consider, and it was certainly something that put it well ahead of the Nissan Altima hybrid, especially with the new lower fuel consumption figures.

We had also stepped into a Honda dealership to look at the new Insight, as Honda was now winding up their new hybrid offerings. One of our high priority requirements on our vehicle feature checklist is headroom... My wife is almost 5'11", and my son has surpassed 6'1", and some of my son's friends are taller. When my wife had checked out the back seat of the Insight, she banged her head on the door opening while getting in, and I chuckled as she sat hunched in the back seat with her chin in her chest because the back of her head was against the roof and rear glass.

Being a mere 5'8", I've never had any issues with headroom in vehicles... until the Honda Insight. Even with the knowledge that my wife had just banged her head while getting into the back seat of the Insight, I ended up banging my head while getting into the back seat of the Insight. I honestly couldn't believe that. I also couldn't believe that I had to scrunch down a bit while sitting in the back seat so my head wouldn't hit the ceiling. Seriously. What was up with that extremely poor design consideration?! I'm barely an average height guy, and I couldn't sit in the back seat. Once again, Honda's hybrid offering was on the well-travelled road to failure. Twitter users, please file under #Honda #fail.

But, as lady luck would have its say, we had to delay any car purchases throughout the entire summer to deal with some unexpected costly household repairs on top of the interior home renovations we had planned. As fall now approaches, and we re-evaluate our financial situation, the topic of buying a new car has surfaced once again, especially with the fear of "that Ford" having a nervous breakdown during the colder months (which is when the electrical plague seemed to act up).

In Part 2, I'll talk about how my wife and I decide to get down to brass tax so we can actually get through buying this long-awaited elusive new car. I'll also describe our requirements for a new vehicle, the vehicles that fit those requirements, and why those vehicles did or did not make our short list for serious purchase consideration.

This should be fun and exciting... Will we actually make a car purchase this time? If so, what car do we finally chose?