Looking at cars
News ·Saturday November 17, 2012 @ 16:07 EST (link)
We hit a few car dealerships along US-19 today: I had thought about moving up from my 2000 Toyota Solara SLE to a Lexus or similar; so since a number of dealerships were nearby on that road, we hit Toyota (to look at Avalons mainly), Acura (TL), Lexus (ES350), Infiniti (G37) (and the Mercedes dealer next to it, E-class), and BMW (528i).
Avalon didn't compare well to Acura or Lexus, and cost about as much, so it got ruled out; I loved the Acura TL; the Lexus ES350 was nice but not as sporty as the TL and the interior looked a bit blocky; the Infiniti lacked interior features and had an annoying high "hump" at the back due to the RWD drive train; and BMW and Mercedes wanted too much for too little. We had to wait a very long time for an Infiniti salesman to talk to us; contrariwise we were likely positively influenced toward Acura by the friendly and genuine-seeming salesperson we talked with (Chris Duncanson). (Sure, they're all trying to make a sale, but some can fake sincerity better than others, er, I mean I'm too cynical and different salespeople give different impressions.) The Lexus salesperson seemed to be a good guy too. Lexus had a beautiful white/black leather IS 350C convertible on the floor.
But ultimately the TL is winning—specifically, the SH-AWD model with the Advanced package in either red/black (it might not come that way, so perhaps red/gray) or black/black; it's priced competitively, has a great reputation, is somewhat more sportier than the Lexus (in return for less of a smooth ride perhaps, but I'm not that old yet), and I like the interior design and features. Naturally I looked at reviews on sites like Edmunds.com and on AcuraZine's forums (even joined to get access to a file showing how to replace the internal HDD).
Books finished: Gödel, Escher, Bach.
