It would be really fun to write a play-by-play rundown of all of the characters I encountered today during my hybrid hunting jaunt, but let me just say that my overall experience today with car salesmen was quite positive and not as scary as I had experienced before. One of my friends at the chorus (he just so happens to be a car fanatic and pretty much an expert on cars) volunteered to join me on my test drives, and I am sure that helped immensely. It was not as intimidating walking into six dealerships with knowledgeable Henry by my side telling me every aspect and tidbit about every car that was on my list. It was like having my own little wikipedia right next to me.
Anyway, I visited Ford, Saturn, Pontiac, Toyota, Mercedes, and Honda, and test drove the Ford Escape Hybrid, Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Prius, and the Honda Civic Hybrid today. I wanted to test drive the Saturn Vue Hybrid and the Smart Fortwo, but the Vue Hybrid wasn’t in stock, and the Smart… well those Mercedes folks are pretty freakin hoighty-toighty. I had to sign up for an appointment, and the next available one is a month away! I have an appointment to test drive it on April 25, 2008.
Test Drive First Impressions
Escape Hybrid: I like the spaciousness and the SUV aspect. I like that the gas mileage was good for an SUV of that size (it’s 34 city/30 hwy). At a base price of $26,000, though, it’s not that affordable (although they still are offering about $3,000 for a tax credit if I buy soon). The test drive was pretty good, smooth, but the braking felt really forced and unnatural. I can see how I would get used to it, but it just felt weird. Because of the price point, I’m going to rank this the 3rd choice.
Pontiac Vibe: Every year I take my students to NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing Company), which is car manufacturing plant in Fremont and is a joint venture between GM and Toyota. For the past three years, I’ve gone on this tour and watched the workers assemble Toyota Tacomas, Corollas and Pontiac Vibes. I just found out today that the Toyota Matrix is pretty much the same thing as a Vibe, so I test drove it just for fun because the Saturn Vue Hybrid wasn’t next door. It handled just like a sporty little car, but it’s too small and not what I’m looking for.
Toyota Prius: Besides all of the confusing options, packages, hybrid technology levels, and other ridiculousness that the salesman from New Jersey was trying to explain to me (not quite as successfully as Henry), I actually really enjoyed driving the Prius. It felt like driving a spaceship with all of the cool tech gadgets and gizmos, and unlike the Escape Hybrid, it was easier to drive and accelerated like magic. And how can you beat fuel economy like 44 mpg? This was easily my #1 by the end of the day. The salesman kept hawking a price of about $24-$25,000 at me, which is still far above what I want to pay.
Honda Civic Hybrid: Walking into the Honda dealership made me instantly nostalgic and kind of sad about not having my Element. She was just a really good and reliable car with no frills. This is exactly how I would describe the Civic Hybrid as well. It looked as plain and boring as a Civic, but with some space-age looking hybrid technology, which was neat. There were no frills about it at all. The backseats didn’t even fold down. It’s gas mileage is the closest to the Prius with 40 city / 45 hwy, and it handles pretty well on the road, except for the slow acceleration. Another good adjective to describe this hybrid would be spartan. After being treated to some neat standard features on the Prius and even the Escape Hybrid, I was expecting a little bit more from the Civic Hybrid… but no. It’s just like a regular Civic, which happens to have a hybrid motor. At a base of about $23,000, though, the price was getting closer to what I would actually want to pay, so this is my 2nd choice.
Smart Fortwo: Oh and about this “smart” car. This one is totally off the list already. Not only is my scheduled test drive a month away, which for practical reasons will not work because my rental car is due in a week, but apparently in order to get your hands on one of these cars, you have to make a reservation online at the website for $99. And then they have to build the car in France, which for some reason takes six months, and then it takes another few months for shipping. All in all, even if I really wanted it, I wouldn’t get it for at least another year. Too bad, Smart. The $11,500 initial base price was appealing.
Related Post: Hybrid Hunting – Vote for my next car!