The Adventure Continues

well, we had our first foray to a car dealership. Actually, two dealerships.

Started at the Subaru dealership and Barb eyed the Subaru Forester, the Legend and the Outback.

The Forester is too small, too boxy and too truck-like.

The Outback sits about 6 inches higher than the Legend or most cars. Turns out that extra height makes it a bit difficult for her to get out of it and she's worried about stability when in heels.

She liked the Legend but the salesman told her that the car will likely be abandoned next year and she doesn't want to buy an "orphan" model. I told her I wasn't very concerned about that but she is -- so that's the way it is.

The Outback is pretty nice and Subaru has a $2,000 rebate on it so the price is pretty nice as well. They had only one with a 5spd manual (turns out that manual transmissions are rare cars for Subaru -- a striking comparison to when I shopped for my Mazda6 wagon). It was a nice mid-shade of Blue and had a tan leather interior. Subaru has a really unique moonroof -- the roof comes in two sections. You press the button once and the first section tilts up. You press the button again and the first section tilts up a bit further to become a deflector and then the sunroof slides back to a 7/8ths open position that's supposed to reduce air buffeting. You push the button again and it slides back all the way. I kind of liked the design -- Barb felt it was too complicated.

The salesman pulled the car out of the garage (it had just been in for cleaning) and is going over the various features with the car running. Barb gets in and tries the sunroof and I'm in the back waiting for the test drive. She tries getting out again and the look on her face told me that there was no test drive that day for that car. The salesman is a bit confused but gamely goes on to talk about the features. I finally say "want to take it for a drive?" and she says (flatly) "no." Salesman is really confused now. So I gently say, well, we'll get back to you and hustle us off to my waiting car.


While waiting at the stop-n-go light, I ask if Barb is interested in looking at the Honda dealership just down the highway. We were planning on going to a movie in an hour so had a small amount of time to kill. I figured we'd just have her look at the Accord and then come back for a test drive.

She says "sure" so off we go and pop into the Honda showroom. There's customers everywhere and all the salespeople are tied up ... I just want to find if they have any Accords with manual transmissions and leather interior. Barb is looking closely at the Accord on the floor and I can tell it's appealing to her ... especially when she sees 26/34 mpg on the sticker.

We finally match up with a salesman who takes us out to look at a silver 6-cylinder 6-speed manual. She gets in, fires it up and off we go for a test drive. She's smitten but a bit worried about getting tickets with the six-cylinder ... it does move (ahem) quickly under her direction.

So I think she's leaning that direction but wants to try out the four-cylinder 5-speed manual transmission model first.

I think having a wagon has just lost out to having an Accord.

Stay tuned for more.