Vroom-Vroom

Friday went exactly according to my plan. First I went to the Honda dealership to check out the Civic Hybrid. Honda and I did not get off to the greatest start, because I couldn't seem to find anyone to help me at first, but after I wandered the showroom for a couple of minutes I found Vincent, sales guy extraordinaire. I was pleasantly surprised when all he did was make a copy of my driver's license, walk me out to a Civic Hybrid and then hand me the keys, saying I could take the car out for a spin on my own. I decided that meant it would be a good idea to drive home and show the car to John, so that's what I did. It handled nicely, even in the rain, and was comfortable - familiar, since I already own a Civic - but spiffed up and more luxurious. And a Hybrid, of course. After John got a good look at the car, I hopped on the highway for a couple of miles to see how the car handled that, and then zipped back to the dealership. I sat there for a while talking to my new pal Vincent about colors and interior colors while someone looked at my car to assess the trade-in value. They totally tried to lowball me on the trade-in too.

Then it was on to Toyota, conveniently located across the parking lot and on the other side of the BP, where I met sales guy number two, Jeff. Jeff seemed a little confused. It took three tries for him to get the keys to a Prius that even came close to having the right "package" of options for me. Supposedly he's their number one guy, and I have to say, if even the salesmen are having trouble sorting out the packages, it means the packages are too complicated. John and I had done our research online though, so I knew what I wanted. Jeff was not about to hand me the keys and send me on my merry way, however. He was determined to show me each and every feature of the Prius, of which there are many. We went for a test drive together, and then I sat some more and discussed colors with Jeff while the Toyota guys looked at my car to give me a trade-in value. If I was going to get a Prius, I felt pretty strongly that it should be red, but they didn't have any red ones at the dealership. Toyota was fairer on the trade-in assesment, although that may have had something to do with me telling them what I wanted to get for the car, and them thinking they had to beat Honda's offer. Which they did.

And then I came home to eat a very late lunch (looking at cars is very time consuming!) and started making my lists of pros and cons for each car. Both guys had laid out pricing and financing options for me (Honda had a slightly better financing offer than what I had already arranged, but Toyota couldn't even come close) and the cars cost almost exactly the same. The Prius is a fancier car for the money, but I wasn't sure that was what I wanted. So back and forth and back and forth we went, debating the pluses and minuses for each car. It was a little harder for John, because he didn't get to see the Prius. Plus, he was of the opinion that I should wait until next weekend to buy the car because supposedly you get better deals on the last weekend of the month. I was of the opinion that I just wanted to get it done and not have to think about it any more.

And so it was that on Saturday morning I went in to Honda and told them that if they could match the offer that Toyota made me on the trade-in, I'd buy the Civic Hybrid. They tried to lowball me again, but I stood firm, and in the end, they gave me what I wanted. Go me! I resisted all attempts to sell me add-ons, warranties, accessories and simonizing packages, and drove off with my new car early Saturday afternoon. I love it! John loves it, and he has very high standards! And even better, I haven't gotten one single "...but if you'd just waited a few more days..." statements from him. It's so pretty. It is sort of a dark shimmery grey with a blue and off white interior. It has an in-dash CD player, which is new for me, and a jack for an MP3 player, should I ever get that iPod touch I lust after. The Hybrid displays are simple and easy to read, although I'm already getting obsessed with watching the MPG indicator as it changes over the course of driving around. It's a sedan, which is a change from my little coupe, but as I ran errands this morning, I found myself enjoying the extra room. Seamus thinks he's in a palace in the back seat now, and he loves the way he can perch on the armrest between the two front seats if he wants to poke his head up front to say hello.

Why did I choose the Honda? It was a pretty close race, actually. The fact that I've owned two Civics previously weighed pretty heavily in Honda's favor, but I know Toyota cars are quality too. My mom's got close to 300,000 miles on her Land Cruiser, my brother has a Toyota pickup, and my friend Becky has a Forerunner. They are all really nice. The Prius has all sorts of neat gadgets, but it also has a bunch of crap I just don't want. I don't need a backup camera. The touch screen radio/climate controls are neat and space age-y, but felt kind of unnecessary. The beeping (fucking beeping!) while the car is in reverse is just ridiculous. My buddy Jeff claimed it was because the engine is so quiet that people don't realize you are backing up, but that would only make sense if you could hear the noise outside the car. You can't. The whole Smart Key thing - you don't start a Prius with a key, you have the key in your pocket and the car knows it and allows you to start it up when you push the power button - is quite clever, and I can see how it could be handy, but it also feels like one more thing that could easily break or be hacked. I liked the braking gear feature quite a bit, but really all cars have something like that. It's just called a lower gear. I loved that it had a hatchback, and the whole cargo area was really well designed. That was the one thing that almost tipped me toward the Prius, because you can't fold down the seats in the Honda Hybrid. The Hybrid battery is stored between the back seat the trunk area. However, I don't haul around that much in the way of long/tall stuff.

It all came down to this: The Civic Hybrid is basically a normal car that gets really good gas mileage because it has the Hybrid engine and battery. The Prius is basically a whole new lifestyle. Yes, the Prius is cool - perhaps even cooler than my Honda. But all I really wanted was a car that I liked and that would be better environmentally, and I worried that I would get annoyed with a lot of the stuff on the Prius once the novelty wore off. Maybe when I get my next car, Prius. We'll talk again in a few years when John is ready to get his own Hybrid. For now, I've got to go work on my list of excuses to drive places. I love my new car!

P.S. Thanks to Becky for the title idea.