<p>The new Hyundai Sonata I bought a few weeks ago is still running fine–that’s a good sign–I’m pleased with the car so far. I got my permanent license tag for the car in the mail yesterday, what’s funny is the Florida tag # begins in big letters: BMW! I feel so cosmopolitan now driving a Korean manufacturer’s car that was assembled in Montgomery, Alabama and has a BMW license plate on the rear of car.</p>
<p>Did you just ask for the extended test drive? What is considered to be extended?</p>
<p>Yes, we asked for the extended test drive, altho some dealerships offered them. We’ve generally taken the car for 2-3 hours, but some dealerships even offered us the option of taking the car overnight. We just wanted to see how the car felt after stting in it for longer than they typical 15-20 minute test drive. The other advantage is not having the salesman with you trying to convince you how perfect the car is.</p>
<p>^On our recent test drive, without asking, the dealer just handed us the keys and suggested some routes. She assumed we’d go by ourselves. I thought that was nice.</p>
<p>The above post recommending against Mazda because of repair issues is totally off base. Statistics show Mazda repair records are excellent. </p>
<p>In God we trust - all others use data.</p>
<p>^agreed. </p>
<p>The first new car I bought for myself was a Mazda and it was extremely reliable–never had an issue. Years later and a couple of cars later, I bought another Mazda–again, never had a mechanical issue with it. A few cars later (including an Izusu, Ford Taurus, Chevy Trailblazer, and Toyota Highlander), my husband bought me a new car for our 25th wedding anniversary—a Mazda6. It’s the car I drive now. I’ve had it for 2 years and it’s never had an issue. In our experience, Mazda has been nothing but a solid and reliable brand.</p>
<p>Definitely add the Hyundai Sonata to your list of possibilities. It’s a nice car and in a good price range.</p>
<p>I drove a red Mazda 121 for 22 years…it kept running and I sold it and then I came home and I bought, another red Mazda. Mine is tiny like my old one, a Mazda 2. I love it and it is perfect for my driving life style.</p>
<p>While mechanics advice is good, you have to be careful about it (and yeah, I know more then a few, being a semi retired gearhead), some of them are like anyone else, they get a notion in their head and it sticks, they remember when someone had a bad car years ago and that is that…I hear mechanics cursting at Hyundais, yet they make a really good car now, they are at a high level, but mechanics remember the Hyundais as they were years ago, with crappy mitsubishi parts and such.</p>
<p>I love toyotas, I have a camry solara convertible I love a lot (don’t get to drive it much, my wife does that shuttling my son around), it is a fun car, and despite the recent problems I have no problem recommending them.</p>
<p>Hyundai as I said above makes some pretty nice cars and they do have a good warranty (the reason they have that is because of the perceptions out there from the past…if they were that bad, those warranties would bankrupt them). </p>
<p>Mazda makes some interesting cars, they are a bit different, and they are pretty reliable from what I hear and have been told. Problem might be there aren’t a lot of mazda dealers out there and it might be difficult to find someone who works on them, depending where you live.</p>
<p>I would stay away from Mitsubishi, besides being in financial trouble they have had a long track record of problems, including admittedly covering up major issues and such. and what I hear matches that perception. </p>
<p>I personally love subarus and from what I hear, you still can’t kill the darn things, I cried when I got rid of my old wagon (it needed a new exhaust after almost 20 years, and I couldn’t justify 1800 bucks on what was a third car…). </p>
<p>Hondas are good, too, but you still pay a premium for them, but they are reliable, my minivan is at 10 years/180,000 miles and still chugging along, other then wearables (brakes, etc). </p>
<p>And now the drum roll, I agree with Granddad, don’t be afraid to try other cars, too. To be honest though I could tell tales of woe stretching back many years, don’t be afraid of the US cars, specifically Ford and GM, they both are making cars that quite honestly are not what they once were, their quality figures and such are only slightly behind the leaders, so they give you options, too. Not long ago there was an article saying how for the first time in a long time, toyota and honda were finding they were selling for less then comparable cars from Ford and GM. </p>
<p>VW makes a decent car but I have also heard mixed feedback on them in terms of reliability and one knock I commonly here is parts are expensive (on the other hand, that is true of Subaru as well, their parts tends to be more expensive then comparable cars IME). </p>
<p>There are few true lemons out there any more, so you have a lot of choices.</p>
<p>Audi A4…</p>
<p>Well, I looked at Toyotas and Mazdas last night. The Toyota experience was so bad that if I buy a Toyota I will find a different dealership. I won’t give that one my business. I don’t know what it is with the nearby Toyota dealerships (went to another one with my daughter last year when she was buying) but the customer service is awful. We got there and a gentleman greeted us and I told him I was interested in the Camry. He took us up in the garage. Understand it was about 100 degrees here yesterday and it was really miserable in the garage. We wandered around until we found the hybrid and we went downstairs and I took it for a test drive. My questions received brief or incorrect answers (his English was limited). He told me it took 89 gas and that Camrys absolutely do not come with blind spot monitors which was a feature I wanted. After driving the hybrid, I asked to see a non-Hybrid. I asked him if he could bring one down as I didn’t want to return to the hot garage. He insisted I go with him which was just not necessary. Anyhow, we went up there and then brought the car down and drove it. He said nothing to me the entire time. Just made no effort to sell the car. My adult son was with me. At one point, the sales person said, “Your turn to drive, Mom.” Really? No. I am not your mom. At another point when he said something we were almost positive was not true, my son asked nicely if it was possible to see the car manual. He said, “You can see the manual when you buy the car.” Anyhow, I had a lot of questions but did not want to proceed with this guy so we went inside and found the guy with the desk and computer. I asked if we could see a manual. He gave us one to look at. I asked about the gas. He said it took 87 and didn’t seem to care at all when I told him I’d been told 89. I said, “Gee, I was really hoping for a car with a blind spot monitor. I’m disappointed Camrys don’t have that.” He said nothing. Then I was looking at the paper he printed (which was only printed when I asked for it to be printed) and, lo and behold, under optional features was the blind spot monitor. I said, “Oh, look, there is a blind spot monitor under optional features.” No response. As far as the car goes, I liked it a lot but I wasn’t madly in love with it. I can see myself in one of those. </p>
<p>Then we went to the Mazda dealership and had the polar opposite experience with the salesperson. She was good at her job, remembered both my name and my son’s and used our names frequently. She talked up the car, took me on a much longer drive which included the freeway. She was great. But I didn’t like the car as much as the Toyota and, for me personally, the red lighting on the console of the 6 was a dealbreaker. It just felt too hard on my eyes. </p>
<p>I agree that I should expand my search. I do want to see the Hyundai Sonata. I shopped with my daughter last year when she got her Elantra and glanced at the Sonata then. I have driven my daughter’s car at times when we switched cars because she needed my van to move stuff. I really like her car a lot. I’ve had two Hondas and loved them both, but Consumer Reports is all but ignoring Hondas now. I only saw the Civic listed anywhere and I don’t want a Civic. It seems to be the consensus that Honda has slipped a bit. But I think I will go to the Honda lot to check it out. When I was shopping a year ago, I felt their prices were high.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about your experience with the Toyota people, unfortunately as the ‘big Harry’s’ of GM found out, when you are #1 that doesn’t mean you can assume people will just buy from you, especially now. Auto dealerships compared to the way they were in the so called good old days have come lightyears, and no one should put up with that crap. Toyota has been a leading brand and maybe they figure cars will see themsellves or something…</p>
<p>As far as Honda goes, the only knock on them is you pay a lot more for them, even these days, often compared to competitors cars. They are still well made cars, they will last a long time, and their dealers are pretty good, but on a price/value basis you might do better elsewhere. </p>
<p>Someone mentioned Audi, I would be very reluctant to go near there, they have major build problems not long ago, they were with Jaguar near the bottom of the luxury car brands a year or two ago, and my grapevine reports are if you get a honey they are great cars, but that it is quite common to have issues.They are also like Volvo in that parts are very expensive as well.</p>
<p>I have driven Toyotas for many years, then once when we shopped fo my next Toyota, dealer happened not to have what I was looking for. They suggested to consider Audi (for about the same price). I did. It could have been a mistake as I will always drive Audi. Well, if there is a problem, then I will have to take it in. If parts are expansive, I guess I will have to pay…I do not think that Audi A4 is a luxury car and the price was the same as Toyota. We never ever bought a brand new car though, my Audi had 2k on it, it was a demo.</p>
<p>That sounds like an awful Toyota dealership - I wouldn’t deal with that dealership either but it’s likely not a Toyota-wide issue so if you really like the car then go to another dealership to buy it or better yet, buy it via the internet sales department of the other dealership. Remember that you can bring the car in to any Toyota dealership for warranty service, even the one close to you.</p>
<p>I’ve been to an Acura dealership a couple of times looking at cars and this dealership has a Vietnamese salesman who can barely speak English, doesn’t know anything about the cars, and is rude IMO. I’d never buy a car from him and I have no idea why he lasted there more than a week or two.</p>
<p>Do yourself a favor and check out the possible car thoroughly in the manufacturer’s website before you go to a dealership. Salespeople are just that, sales people, and don’t necessarily know much about what they’re selling. Most of them work heavily on commission and float from one lot to another. The one you’re dealing with at Toyota could have been selling on the Ford lot last week and the Mazda lot a month before that. If you evaluate the car on the website first you should be able to find out what type of gas it requires, what options, like blind spot monitoring, are available, what colors are available (as opposed to the sales person showing you just what they happen to have on the lot - likely a sea of gray/silver with a few black and white ones thrown in - I hope you don’t get a gray/silver car). This way you can enter the lot with more knowledge than the sales person and you can use that knowledge to validate what the sales person is telling you and get a good idea if the sales person is trying to pull a fast one.</p>
<p>The reason I knew he was giving me some incorrect information was because I’d done some homework. I was sure I’d seen the information about the blind spot monitors on the Internet which is why I kept bringing it up. Had I not, I’d have believed that it didn’t exist. But I learned a lesson from that. I do need to be informed because they want to get rid of the cars on their lot and will make you think that is everything that exists.</p>
<p>You’re right. You need to do your research before you walk into the dealership. We had a similar experience with the one Toyota dealership around here. They couldn’t be bothered putting in any effort to sell their cars. They had a pompous and cold attitude and didn’t really seem to care whether they sold a vehicle or not. On a side note, we’ll never buy another honda from our Honda dealership either. They’re a bunch of liars. We actually caught them in numerous lies and called them out on it.</p>
<p>I’m glad you tried the Mazda. My Mazda does have the blind spot warning feature. </p>
<p>Check out the Sonata. The Fusion is a solid car too, but I found the Mazda to be a bit roomier and sportier. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>
Exactly. Their number one rule is to not let the customer leave the lot without buying something. They know that if you leave the lot there’s a good chance you won’t return. They’ll try to convince you to buy what happens to be there. They’ll also try to pull you into an office to sit down and ‘work through the numbers’, pull the ‘I need to discuss it with my manager’ bit, and basically have you spend a lot of time there (they purposely delay you when in the little office) so you’ll just want it all over with and buy now on their terms. So many of these dealers have been using the same old tactics for decades. It’s much better to buy via the internet/fleet sales department either directly via email or through a buying service as mentioned earlier in this thread. But to do that you need to have a pretty good idea of exactly the car you want to buy.</p>
<p>Okay, so with the Internet, are you buying through the dealer website? E.g. Toyota doesn’t sell through Costco, etc. So do I call the number on their website? Like calling Apple to custom order a laptop?</p>
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<p>I love Toyotas. I hate dealerships and car salesmen. I’ve never spend more than 5 minutes with one before he demonstrates that he knows less about the cars than I do. That’s the reason I buy Toyotas. I don’t want to have to return to the dealership, ever. Toyota’s engineers and workers allow that to happen. </p>
<p>The last car I bought was a luxury brand SUV. I did it over the internet, via email. When I picked it up, I asked the salesman if the spare was a full-size, or a “donut” type, and he said ‘they’re all donuts now’. I was actually pretty sure that it was full-size, and in fact it was. </p>
<p>I’ve also found that you can get a better deal from dealers who aren’t around the corner from you. Of course, I did have to wait 5 hours when buying about six years ago because the dufuses couldn’t figure out how to get the tire pressure warning light to go out. And I had to endure the “finance” man interview trying to push things on me that I didn’t want.</p>
<p>You have my deepest sympathy during the buying process.</p>
<p>EDIT: when I bought mine, I sent an email to the internet sales department saying what car and equipment I wanted, and what price I wanted to pay, and what day I wanted delivery, and that I was paying cash. The manager emailed me back and said he could do it. I do think you have to have decided what you want, and it can’t be that hard to find either. About 15 years ago, I had a salesman deliver the car to me from a dealership about 90 miles away. All that negotiation was done over the phone, and he was actually a decently informed guy. Once you know what you want, there’s no real need to go the dealer.</p>
<p>mimk6 - be sure to “build your own car” on the Toyota website. What we found is that certain options are only available in certain geographic regions. On their website, you enter your zip code so they only give the options that are available in your region. What we didn’t like about Toyota is that their options come in tiered packages and you might need to purchase packages you don’t necessarily want to be able to buy the package that has the features you do want.</p>
<p>Okay. I should add that there may be limitations as to how I can make a purchase because I do have a car I’d like to trade in. I’m not sure I’ll get much for it, but I might need to do that at a dealer.</p>