Back in June 2005, Andrea and I decided to buy a car. Well, I suppose we decided to buy it a bit sooner. We had lived in Sandy Hill and took the bus to work or anywhere else we wanted to go, and it was relatively easy getting around, so we never felt a “need” for a car that strongly. Plus, I’m not a gearhead or even a wannabe, so for me, it’s just transportation, not entertainment. We had rented cars a few times to go on trips, and all worked well, with no giant issues.
Until one night we decided we were going to go to a movie in Britannia. From Parkdale, by car, that was about a 5-10 minute drive. Maybe 15 if you hit lights or you took a slow route. But we didn’t have a car yet, so we decided to take a bus. We walked from our house on Parkdale about 4 or 5 blocks up to Carling Avenue and waited for the 85 to come along. It’s a milk run, but it was one bus, and it seemed the easiest route from where we were. It was Saturday night, so not much else running near us that was useful.
The bus was late. It should have been running every 10-15 minutes, and we waited over 30 before one came along. It then took forever going down Carling, the slowest driver ever (they were training that night). We had left our house at 7:30 for a 9:15 movie, and it was almost 8:45 by the time we got to the theatre. Finished the movie, caught a bus home around 11:45, I think, and we got home around 12:30 or so. We were gone for 5 hours for a 2-hour movie.
And it’s not like we were in the boonies somewhere. Parkdale is fairly central. Carling Avenue is a major road. But the logistics of getting there for something so simple was just beyond painful. And while we had made the best of our transit options up until then, that one put me over the edge.
I suddenly wanted a car.
What I remember most, though, about the experience was that this was Andrea’s and my first experience with a major purchase together. And our views of risk were completely different. She felt the best way to mitigate the purchase was to buy new…we would pay a lot more, sure, but we would be confident it would likely hold together for a while. I was on the opposite end…I wanted to buy used to keep whatever the lemon factor cost was going to be as low as possible. We considered a few options, but in the end, Andrea convinced me that we could afford new. I often wonder what kind of conversation I would have had with my dad about it, as he had likely never bought new in his life. Often his cars were based on what we could afford, and it was often 5- and 6-year-old vehicles looking for a new life. Or older even.
But we looked around, and it didn’t take long for us to settle on one of the simplest, most reliable transport options going, the Honda Civic. We called it the Blue PandA and bought it from the Richmond Road dealer (photos 19-23).
After we picked it up, the first thing we did was go for a drive (obviously), and we went out to Kanata since we would NEVER go there normally. Just out along Richmond / Robertson / Hazeldean Road. Along the way, we saw deer, which we found oddly magical. Certainly, not something we saw near our house on Parkdale nor in Sandy Hill (photos 26-27).
And then we headed up into the Gatineau Hills. Just in time for a sunset (photos 28-38).
We had the car until July 2009, when we were in a car accident out in Kanata on the way back from the cottage (it was raining, and I was driving too fast to stop). We were shaken up, but other than a couple of scratches, no lasting damage to us, while the car’s frame was twisted enough to be a write-off. The insurance company wrote us a cheque for $10K, and it was done.
It served us well for the 4 years we had it. But I still remember that first day and seeing deer alongside the road in Kanata. RIP Blue Panda.
I drive a 2009 Nissan Rogue, base model. While it isn’t flashy or sporty, I’m not a “car enthusiast”. I don’t care about whether it can do 0 to 60 in 3 seconds, I just want to know if it has enough power to pass three cars on a two-lane highway or not. I honestly care more about reliability and cargo space than styling or engine displacement.
Since the car is now 8 years old, I’ve been thinking that maybe, sometime soon perhaps, I may start to see big expenses creep into the picture and the big giant decision will start to loom:
Fix or ditch?
Transmissions are often big-ticket items, but mine was covered under warranty and replaced about 20K back, with a new warranty on the replacement. I’m good for a while.
We’ve done brakes a few times.
Nothing gigantic looming.
But I had a small issue recently — my back shocks started leaking until they were completely dry.
I talked to my father-in-law who has probably forgotten more about cars than I will ever know, and he felt it was likely time to think about a new car too, which was the way I was leaning. I had planned to run it into the ground, but that ground was getting closer (literally with the shocks gone).
During the evaluation of what needed to be done, I did a test drive of the 2017 Rogue, looking at a step up in level, and it is like night and day. Moon roof availability, relatively the same handling, interior upgrades, tech packages. Overall a much nicer car than we have currently, and that was part of my thinking too — I spend a lot of time in the car, and I want some perks added to the package. One that I would love to have is 360 degree cameras that show the side line-up for parking between lines in parking lots, front and back cameras and proximity alerts, etc.
Then the quote for repairs came back around $2K, and we were now in the realm of ditching the car in favour of a new one.
The Nissan Rogue was an obvious contender. The existing model meets my needs relatively well, so why change? We looked at a few options, including a demo model with full styling packages, and it was a viable choice.
But if we were going to do a real search, we wanted to do a real search.
We checked out hybrids at Toyota. We calculated the added cost to go hybrid, and as long as we were keeping the car longer than about 3-5 years, the higher purchase price would be compensated for by lower operational costs. In the end though, I just didn’t like the feel of the car.
We tried to check out the Honda CRV. We went to the dealership, and while I hadn’t made an appointment, I wasn’t expecting any problem talking to someone. It was a weeknight and the showroom wasn’t busy. We went in, went straight to the vehicle, opened it up, climbed in and out, took out our measuring tape and measured things with seats up and down, forward and back. Anybody would see we weren’t kicking tires, we were actively seeing if this car would meet our needs. Serious sales potential. When we were done, I had a concern about the interior styling as the one area jutted out into my leg space, and I wanted to know if it was that way in all styling packages. I have no idea the answer as nobody would come help us.
We were there for 15 minutes and nobody came to see if we wanted anything. When we were done, we walked out into the middle of the showroom, and were clearly looking around for someone to talk to…but three people hiding in little cubicles saw us and ignored us. A guy was coming back from talking to the receptionist, and walking straight toward me. I went to ask him the question, clearly looking to engage him, and he turned, walked towards the manager’s office and ignored me. WTF? Your business is that good that you can intentionally snub and ignore customers? Really? I wouldn’t take a car from them if they PAID me to take their vehicle. Ass hats. I decided that when we bought the car, we would take a picture (we always do) and send it to them to thank them for ignoring us and steering us to their competitors. I was tempted to send it to head office too.
Next up, I wanted to try a Subaru. Partly as so many of the Subaru owners are passionate about how happy they are with their purchase. We were in an elevator at work the one time, and a coworker mentioned they were looking and considering the Outback. Another woman, someone none of us knew, turned and said that she had bought an Outback, and it had CHANGED. HER. LIFE. It was actually a little bit creepy.
Anyway, I tried the Outback and fell in love. I grew up driving big Buicks and Le Mans and Le Barons and basically large land boats with power steering. While the Outback isn’t big and clunky, it had the big solid feel I grew up with, and I was totally comfortable driving it. Great rating out the wazoo, very comfortable, all good, except for one thing. The seat height from the floor is only about 13 inches, compared to the 15-16 inches in the CUVs. Basically, it’s a car with car seating, not a CUV. Andrea really didn’t like the seats, and while the rest was probably enough to compensate for it for me, I didn’t disagree. It was likely going to be out.
The Subaru Forrester by contrast wasn’t quite as comfortable for sheer driveability, but it was pretty good. Great styling, good tech packages (backing up, driver assist, but not sides).
While we were considering the Forrester, we decided to try the Santa Fe Sport. I was doubtful there was as much room in the backseat for Jacob (the online specs showed less room), but it turned out to be equally spacious. With more pep for the acceleration. I confess though that I’m still a bit leery of Hyundai’s quality. Some friends in the know said that it is much better now, but I wasn’t convinced. Some of the ratings are good, but I didn’t feel like it was as solid a build to drive. Small, but persuasive.
We made a decision. We would go for the Forrester. We even made an appointment with the salesman to go in and discuss the final financing.
But there was one niggling detail. We weren’t entirely convinced we needed a new car yet.
I know, I know, you’d think we had already decided that, but it was a bit in context. I was willing to let it go, even if I felt it might have another year or two left in the old girl. And the repairs could be done for a bit less, closer to $1500, and one of them was just an irregular tune-up cost since it was overdue. Which meant I was looking at a bill of about $1200-$1500 to fix it, vs. the big financing option to buy.
What was the deciding factor? It was two-fold.
First, I was a bit grumpy with the salespeople. The Rogue isn’t in bad shape, pretty good actually, nothing really wrong with it, and the online book value puts it somewhere between $5K and $5500. Sure, those numbers can be a bit high, and you’ll see less to sell it in the end, but north of $4500 for sure. Plus, I had winter tires and summer tires for it, on rims, and they were both only a year old — almost $2500 worth of better-than-average tires, call it discounted to about $1200. Which would put me back squarely in the $5000-$5500 range.
Except none of the dealers were offering us over $3K. One came close and then said, “Oops, not we’re not doing that after all”.
So I would give up a $5K car and take the $2K hit; I would get the new vehicle and with financing, shell out $5-6K per year for about five years. Not including a substantial down payment.
Or I could spend up to the same $6K per year and keep enjoying the financing-free premium of owning the car outright right now.
Second, two friends came over for dinner and in discussions with them, while they agreed with the desire to buy a new vehicle, they basically mentioned how frugal cheap they are and that they prefer to eke out every last drop of value from the vehicle before they get rid of one.
And separately, Andrea and I were convinced. We didn’t need to buy the new car, although we could. I had it e-tested, just to be sure, and yes, we could keep our current vehicle. While we won’t be driving across the country in it, it’s fine for daily use and short-hauls.
So we got if fixed. And we’re exploiting the crap out of it for now. It seems strange, but after long conversations on FB with people, we decided that our new car would be a 2009 Nissan Rogue that was already in our driveway.
But at least we know where we might start looking in two years when I’m willing to let the current car go on trade-in for whatever they choose to give me.
Someone on the Lost Ottawa page on Facebook posted a pic of her old learner’s permit / 365 in Ontario (your learner’s permit was based on a writing test and was good for one year i.e. 365 days, hence the name) and it got me thinking about my own experience of learning to drive.
When I was in high school, I didn’t have a big desire to drive. Partly because I never needed to — my brother was six years older, and if I went anywhere without my parents, it was likely with him. Plus, most of the time, we could just ride our bikes wherever we wanted to go. And there was an element that while we had two cars, my brother had first dibs ahead of me anyway, so I wouldn’t have likely been able to borrow it very often anyway. And to be honest, I couldn’t care less about cars for the look and feel. Sure, I like the look of some, particularly a few you see in the old car shows, but the real specs or the history rarely excite me. Even now, I’m not looking for a car with a big engine or sleek styling. Decent transportation, some cargo room, a bit of power to pass people on the highway, and I’m more than satisfied. So I wasn’t the typical teen clamouring for his license.
When I was about to graduate though, and dating a girl who lived a bit outside my main neighbourhood, a car started to look a lot more useful for going out to the cottage or even just getting to different movie theatres or restaurants. Get your mind out of the gutter, it was about transportation. She was taking lessons, and her brother got his license, so it just seemed natural to go ahead and get mine. May of 1987, a few weeks before my 19th birthday.
I had my 365 for a few months, and did some practice here and there. I had driven a bit before the permit too, but always out at the lake on private property. No real roads, which was fine with me as we always had big cars and the roads were dirt, bordered by large ditches. Once I had my 365, my parents let me drive on the backroads to get used to driving, initially to the store and back, and over time, I was allowed to drive further and further.
City driving was another ballgame. Everybody was busy, so I rarely got to practice. A few weeks before the test, I got my Dad to take me out a few times, which I found nerve-wracking. He wasn’t super critical or anything, I just didn’t want to screw up.
And while I was learning to drive, I was often driving a big huge Buick or a station wagon or a full-size Malibu. Big vehicles. We had Comets and Mavericks before that, and I would love to have done my test in one of those, but they were long off the scene before I was doing my test. The night before the test, it was time to try…dun dun dun…parallel parking.
So my Dad took me downtown Peterborough. For those of you who have been to Peterpatch, you know that the main part of downtown is about 8 blocks long, with two one-way arteries — George Street running south and Water Street running North. So we went to George Street and started practicing. With the street four lanes wide, I wasn’t blocking traffic while I was practicing, easy for them to go around, and guaranteed cars already parked on the street to park near. Plus there were lots of cross streets with cars parked, particularly up around Brock Street, i.e. all good locations to practice.
I was a bit nervous about this part. I knew some people who had done their test years before and failed the parallel parking aspect, and had to redo the test. I knew too that recently some people had passed their tests without even having to try parallel parking. It wasn’t clear that I would have to do it, but just in case, I needed obviously to practice. With a giant Buick. Fun times.
I wish I knew then about the technique people teach now of pulling up alongside, turning hard until you’re diagonal with the license plate, and then cutting back in. Nope, just angle as best you can.
And I got it on the first try. I even impressed my Dad.
Three more tries, and Dad was bored. So we went home. That was my training.
I wasn’t sure what to expect for the test, it had been a few years since my brother had done his test, and like I said, I wasn’t really in a group of people bucking for their licenses at school, so no “common” reference point. I expected it to be a little more rigorous than my father’s test back in the war. At the time he did his test, you could drive with your confirmation to the testing centre for the actual test.
The testing centre was located in downtown Peterborough and so the guy told him to pick him up on the corner of x and y at 4:00 sharp. The guy got in, had my father drive a block and take one turn, another block for another turn, and a third block for a third turn. Basically he had him go around the block and stop next to a pub. He said, “Okay, you can drive, pick up your license tomorrow” and then he went into the pub. That was it.
Fortunately for all of us, it was a little more rigorous than that by my time.
For the test, I seem to recall borrowing my sister-in-law’s car, although I don’t really remember precisely. I just remember whatever car I used was smaller than the big ones that I had been driving. The tester had me drive down some side streets, take a few turns in a large neighbourhood, pull out onto a four-lane street with a series of stop lights, pass through a couple of busy intersections, a few more turns, and we were back at the testing centre, about 15 minutes duration. He said I took left turns a little sharp, and right turns a little wide, the same thing my Dad had said the night before, but it was all good. No parallel parking required, I just had to park it in a spot at the testing centre. All done. Passed the first time.
It’s interesting…I wasn’t very nervous learning to drive except for the size of our car. The big Buick just took up so much of the road that meeting anyone on the dirt roads scared the crap out of me, having to get over. But the part that was really interesting was a couple of people I talked to AFTER the test. They were really scared when they were learning because they have never driven ANYTHING in their life.
Huh? I had never really thought about it. I had driven bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, ATVs, quads, different types of boats, and snowmobiles. Probably a couple of other things I can’t even think of off-hand, like go-karts. So, sure, it was bigger, but moving up wasn’t that scary, except for the size of our particular car. But for people who had NEVER driven anything in their life before? Not even a bicycle in the one guy’s case? Unfathomable to me.
