Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Requirements

Since you all have advice on my new car selection - perhaps reviewing this list of requirements will help you make a choice.

  • great mileage
    this is a top priority as my work commute has increased from 8 miles one way to 48.

  • affordable
    this is definetly the second most important as we are still financing the education of our second and final child

  • great resale value
    why throw money away

  • nimble driving experience
    (see the first bullet)

  • medium to dark interior color
    FREE dog is black - need I say more

  • sedan
    yes, I want 4 doors

  • and it must be cute
    this is of course my cuteness scale - which may differ from yours



Other nice-to-haves:
  • MP3 connectivity

  • interior seating designed to fit shorter, ever-so-slightly round people

  • easy care exterior color

  • well placed drivers side cup holder


aw hell ...while I am at it:
  • heated seats (I have them now and love them)

  • remote start


Time to shop.

13 comments:

sageweb said...

Does Rolls Royce make a Hybrid?

PDQ said...

I have a Toyota Echo that I love... but for the snazzy factor, what about a Mazda 3?

sporksforall said...

Camry hybrid. Focus hybrid. Easy Peasy.

eb said...

An art car

Zoe said...

Hmm, I guess affordable is sort of subjective. I'm a Subaru and a VW fan myself, and I love both of the companies. I happen to know that you can get heated seats and nice big moon roofs in both. I know that VW is making diesels, which would be good for the mileage issue and you could potentially use biodiesel. The Subaru, as much as I love the company and my car, doesn't have such great mileage. My Forester, which is all wheel drive, gets about 21 city and 26 high way. The smaller Subarus might get better mileage, I don't know.

Good luck.

chapin said...

Honda CRV You'd love it big time

Anonymous said...

Heated seats are a MUST, we love ours. Mr. Cool, my coworker, drives from the Northampton, MA area down this way each day. He did a TON of research and test driving, and ended up w/a Toyota Corolla. Have you checked out the Honda Civic hybrid?

Anonymous said...

Honda Element..great basic car, good mileage...great for dogs...easy to clean...nice cup holder..available with 4WD for winter climes...I even pulled a couple of vans and a post office truck out of snow banks with mine...

LostInColor said...

I miss my VW GTI, I was getting 34 mpg city. It was very zippy and seemed to hold its resale value well. But that was a 1998. I am not sure how the new ones compare. My new car is a Subaru Forester, went with something bigger. So far I am getting about 28 mpg city. I don't think it is cute, nor does it have good cup holders. But it is 5 speed manual, and has MP3 connectivity. I don't "fit" as comfortable as I did in my VW (short factor) but it is ok.

KMae said...

I have a red PT Cruiser. It's cute, but I wouldn't suggest it. I prefer bigger with more luxury. very uncomfortable next to big cars & trucks on the highways, too small. Plus I have to fill it up too often.

DawgDyke said...

I want a Nissan Titan, you in the market for a dyke magnet Dodge Ram? :)

Anonymous said...

What's going on? This is like the third new car buying conversation I've had today. Okay, I understand that reading and commenting on your excellent blog does not actually qualify as a conversation. But the other two were, I swear. :)

Dodes said...

Weese!

Your requirements describe a Minicooper.

You know that I LOVE mine, have had it for 4 years, great mileage, easy to manuever, and six air bags. Heated seats w/ the winter package, inexpensive, and keeps its value much better than others. Made by BMW, great stereo, zippy, and really fun to drive.

The only requirement that it doesn't fit is the 4-door sedan. Unless you plan on carrying more than two people in the car, you can do w/out the sedan. I don't miss the four-day at all.

A third can fit comfortably by putting their legs up on the bench seat.

It has a decent trunk when you fold down the back seats. Holds quite a bit. I am always surprise at how many flowers, bushes, and large bags of soil, fertilizer I can fit inside.

Think about it, they start around $19K for the basic.