<p>… And they can get really sticky if the person is sweating (or is simply wearing shorts). That’s why some manufacturers make ventilated seats, but not everyone is hot about them:
[-</a> Cars.com](<a href=“http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Story.jsp?section=top&sgaubject=more&story=top10advancements&referer=&year=]-”>http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Story.jsp?section=top&sgaubject=more&story=top10advancements&referer=&year=)</p>
<p>If I lived in HI, I’d go with cloth seats.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m partial to cloth seats, as is D but H wants leather. He may get leather in his car while I get cloth in mine. I’ve never bought leather in either of my new cars but we did end up with leather in several of the used cars we’ve owned. More to discuss in our growing list of vehicles.</p>
<p>We are in the process of car buying - it takes us awhile so it could be a long process! We are currently considering the Volkswagen Passat and Jetta, Honda CRV and Accord and the Volvo XC70.</p>
<p>I loathe having to deal with car sales people and dealerships. If there are any upcoming auto shows near you I would recommend going. I did this recently and was able to sit in cars - front seat, back seat…spend time in them without someone breathing down my neck asking me questions. I was able to eliminate Subaru from my list because the seats were uncomfortable.</p>
<p>For work we have to rent cars often so we have been renting with the idea that they are long test drives - a week to 10 days at a time. Here are some of the recent rentals with mini-reviews:</p>
<p>FORD FUSION: We hated returning this car - really liked it! Spacious. Stylish (a few friends said WOW - that’s a Ford). Handled well. Felt solid.
FORD ESCAPE: I liked this car - liked the size & handling. DH was lukewarm on it because he thought it felt cramped and he thought the gas mileage should have been better.
HYUNDAI: Some type of sedan. We were looking forward to driving this car because we liked the style. Not at all impressed. Car had under 10,000 miles and it really rattled. Lots of little parts of the interior were coming apart.
NISSAN MURANO: worst car I have ever driven - felt cheap inside - horrible handling - terrible gas mileage - uncomfortable front seat.
DODGE JOURNEY: I was rather surprised that I liked this vehicle as I have never been a fan of Dodge. I liked the size (small suv/cross over). DH felt the gas mileage was not good considering the size of the car. He also hated the way the car shifted - very clunky.
VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT: Very, very roomy. Plenty of head room too. Large trunk. Has a solid feel to the car as in if you were hit you feel like you will be protected. DH loves this car because it comes in a diesel (we are test driving a diesel version today).</p>
<p>We currently have a six year old Honda Pilot with 180,000 miles on it (we drive A TON thus the reason DH wants a diesel). We have been incredibly impressed with the Honda. It drives as well today as the day we bought it. It has been reliable - I would drive it forever if I could. We are meticulous about maintaining our cars because we like to get at least 8- 10 years out of them. The Honda has been a GREAT vehicle thus the reason we are considering the CRV and Accord.</p>
<p>We are considering the Volkswagens because they come in diesel which for our driving habits is a good option. </p>
<p>The Volvo XC70 would be my hands down choice but DH is not a fan of Volvo - but I am working on him! A few years back I had a diesel Mercedes (great car - HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE,HORRIBLE service from the dealership so I would never buy another…and I have told them this). The car was in an accident. My insurance company gave me a car to use. It was a Volvo wagon. For me it was the best car I had ever driven (very comfortable seats, felt solid etc…). I had the car for two weeks and I did not want to return the car to pick up the Mercedes.</p>
<p>Thanks for your insights. We have had four Volvos over the course of our marriage. In fact H and D still drive Volvos. Sadly our mechanic says he’s not a fan of any of the Volvos made after the one we gave D. He just has a hard time getting parts and doesn’t feel they’re as well made as he’d like. He wants to buy H’s Volvo when we upgrade. :). </p>
<p>We have driven a Toyota Venza that H disliked for many reasons, including that it ballooned out with styling so he had a hard time parking it as he couldn’t figure out where it’s sides were. I think we may have also driven a Nissan SUV, but we can’t remember much about it. Sadly, we have never been wowed by any of our rental vehicles, thinking we’d love to own them, even tho we rent at least 6-8 times a year. </p>
<p>I think renting with the thought of an extended test drive is excellent. S did that when he was shopping. He rents about 3 cars a month for about a week apiece, so he got a pretty good feel for what’s available. His favorites were Volvo S40 and a Mazda, I think. He ended up inheriting a car, so his purchase was aborted. We’re looking for a bigger car than that as well as a mini SUV to replace my van. H is leaning toward Cadillac ATS or Buick Verano and I’m leaning toward Honda CRV (tho neither of us have driven any of these vehicles). H drove the Buick La Crosse, but he didn’t LOVE it.</p>
<p>Any thoughts on how to get a reasonable and fair price? Am not into haggling and bargaining. When I purchased in 1986, I brought along pricing for desired vehicle from OR dealer and had HI dealer match or I wouldn’t buy from him. It minimized haggling and got me to mgr who authorized the sale. </p>
<p>How do folks purchase these days? If I buy off island (like CA, OR or neighbor island), also will have to factor in cost and hassle of shipping vehicle. Still, I guess a printed quote will give leverage to get price without so much haggling. </p>
<p>How do folks get good quotes?</p>
<p>Is there best time of month and year to buy? I know when next years models are coming to dealers is a good time to get this years model, but when is that? Also is end of month best time?</p>
<p>Any help is GREATLY appreciated.</p>
<p>Last new car I got, I used edmunds.com to request quotes from dealers. They all came in right around invoice as listed on edmunds.com. Went in, dealer gave me that price with no haggling. There needs to be some competition though, if there is only one dealer you won’t get the best price.</p>
<p>One thing that won’t show up on those prices that you get from edmunds, and that every dealer is doing these days, are $300-$500 in “documentation” fees, and they won’t budge on these. It might as well be called “extra profit” because everyone is using the internet to get “invoice” pricing.</p>
<p>Himom:</p>
<p>I think you’re a Costco fan. If you want a relatively hassle-free buying experience and especially if you know exactly what you want, you can go through the Costco buying program. They’ll refer to a dealer in your area they work with and the dealer will give you a ‘Costco’ price that’s generally pretty decent. It’ll typically be way under MSRP and will be tied to some point above the ‘dealer invoice’ price which is what the dealer pays for the car (not counting certain dealer incentives, etc. which can mean the dealer really pays less than dealer invoice so don’t feel bad that they’re not making enough money).</p>
<p>I’ve gone this route to the point of getting the price from the dealer but I had already done some of my own legwork through the fleet departments of various dealers (who nowadays handle the ‘internet sales’ department oftentimes) and I managed to get a price that beat the Costco price but I’m talking maybe a few hundred dollars at the most in the difference.</p>
<p>You can do the same thing as the Costco auto buying program through your credit union or AAA as well as sometimes through a dealer’s ‘internet sales’ (depends on the dealer) and some online car buying programs.</p>
<p>In all of the above you can avoid having to deal with salespeople and going through the whole tired sales circus they try to put everyone through (i.e. wearing the buyer down by stretching the experience to hours, going to discuss it with the front end sales person’s so-called ‘manager’, etc.).</p>
<p>OK, after we’ve test-driven some of the cars so we have a better idea of what we’re wanting to buy, we’ll try some of those options. I’m not sure what dealers in our state work with any of the programs, but it’s worth exploring after we’ve done more narrowing. Would be upset to buy a car we HATE or dislike, since we tend to keep our cars for a VERY long time, especially when purchased NEW!</p>
<p>H continues to lobby for leather seats, because we keep the cars so long that it contains and limits the dust mites which set off all our allergies. Will probably defer to him on this. Am wondering if we really NEED two vehicles or will keep one old and one new for a while, especially since H will be retiring in less than a month and I’m only working more and more part-time. </p>
<p>The thing is he wants a large car, like the one he’s replacing while I want a mini-SUV, if I’m giving up my mini-van, so it may be moot.</p>
<p>So much to ponder.</p>
<p>The good thing is that there are three dealers of Hondas on our island, so there is SOME competition and I COULD have a car shipped from neighbor islands and/or CA/OR if the price warrants such measures (though of course I prefer not to bother). There are at least a few dealers of Cadillacs and Buicks on Oahu as well. Yeah!</p>
<p>Anyone compared prices they were able to get with the TrueCar graphs and quotes? I’m just curious and wasn’t thrilled when I called the toll-free Costco number and they wanted information before they’d even tell me whether they have dealers on our island that even participate in their program at all! I’m spoiled and thrilled that you can get info about your area using the TrueCar website without providing information about you (other than your zip code and what you’re looking for).</p>
<p>I haven’t read all the posts, but we traded in our Chrysler minivan last year for a Ford Edge, which is a crossover like the Rav4 and CRV, but a big larger. It’s the Ford vehicle between the Explorer and Escape. The Explorer was too big and the Escape too small. We like the Edge, as we can fit 3 adults comfortably in the back seat. (no so w Escape) It gets 20mpg on local driving (no highway) and mid-20s on the highway. My biggest gripe is the storage space is a big step down from the minivan, which was tough on moving D1 to/from school this past year. </p>
<p>Another second for buying via Costco. We mentioned it at the Ford dealer and saved quite a bit on the price with no haggling.</p>
<p>Thanks for those thoughts. Do you like your Ford Edge? I’m not sure if I’m going to switch to a Ford, but good to have this as another option to explore. Glad you were able to get the Costco benefit and save the haggling (I hate bargaining).</p>
<p>The Ford Edge is larger than I’d like, especially wider. I’m trying to downsize and we don’t feel we’ll be moving people any more and generally we rarely have more than the four of us in the car at any time. Our lanes and parking spaces keep getting narrower, so wider cars have great risk of getting dinged and worse.</p>
<p>
I think Costco likes to keep the dealers they deal with close to the vest. They want you to go through Costco. You can do this on their website but you need to enter your info and the dealer will contact you. It must be how Costco gets something out of the deal as opposed to you just going straight to the dealer and bypassing Costco.</p>
<p>NJ may have gone to a non-Costco dealer and when the Costco deal was mentioned they knew they had to compete so they did a price match. They must all know who the Costco dealers are and what that deal is since it’s fairly fixed. Just a guess on my part.</p>
<p>I think Gladgraddad has it.
We are Costco members but it wasn’t helping us with our hyundai search.</p>
<p>We printed out a few trucar graphs and closed a deal just mentioning them.
I’m sure a REAL haggler would have fared even better but we were well satisfied.</p>
<p>Yeah. We have to test drive at a few different places. I have graphs and AAA, Costco and USAA. Have spoken with the Internet sales person at one dealer so far.</p>
<p>She pressed me to make an appointment for a test drive bit I said I rather just appear at MT convenience.</p>
<p>I don’t want anyone contacting me until I’m positive exactly what I want and then just want the out the door price.</p>
<p>I think I have enough info from TrueCar about current pricing to get myself a fair deal and not be browbeaten. I really hate waiting around and do NOT want to have a salesperson pester H or me.</p>
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<p>Considering that the interiors of most cars (even expensive ones) are mostly plastic, that is an odd comment. However, it is true that some people will say that some plastics look and feel more “high end” than others.</p>
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<p>He should have looked into the kayak carrying before buying a car.</p>
<p>However, aftermarket roof racks are available for the Honda Fit and most other cars that can allow carrying a kayak.</p>
<p>His FIT has a roof rack, but they have always wanted to also secure it more when transporting on the highway. Didn’t have the problem with finding something to attach it in any of their prior vehicles. </p>
<p>Am surprised to learn how little our ancient cars are worth–both under $3K!</p>
<p>Am fascinated by the range of quotes I’m getting for the same vehicle on the various websites. Some price the vehicle at over $28K while one has it at $25.5K. This doesn’t even include the incentive for having a recent college grad driving the vehicle! Of course tax and registration are extra. </p>
<p>Have not talked with Costco about their rates because haven’t yet test driven the vehicle.</p>
<p>I am a fan of many of the Costco programs. We have saved a ton of money using their car rental program. We are in the process of buying a new car. Thus far the Costco Auto program, for us, has been a dud. </p>
<p>Yesterday we went into a dealership to test drive a car. We went because we had entered our info into the Costco system. The dealer contacted us. They had a car that met our parameters but we had to come in because they would not give us the Costco prices over the phone because they were “so rock bottom”. We had to test drive the car anyway and the dealership was not too far - so not a big deal to go in. </p>
<p>The sales person was horrible! He seemed bent out of shape that we were there to get the “dirt cheap” price because of “that Costco deal-y-o”. On the test drive the guy could not answer any questions about the car even though he claimed to own the same car! Get back to the dealership and had to go through all of the car dealership nonsense of meeting the manager, what can we do to get you in the car talk (Ummmm… just show me the Costco price)! They finally present two sets of paper work on the car. One with a whole bunch of extra stuff (extended warranty type stuff) and one with just the rock bottom Costco price. The Costco price was not very good - it was on the bubble between the good price and the above market price on the TrueCar graph.</p>
<p>It’s not really difficult dealing with new car salesmen…if they won’t give you the deal you want, just stand up and leave. When I was buying a car last year, I was leaving a dealership where I couldn’t get deal I wanted and while I was leaving, in my car with turn signal blinking, stopped and waiting to pull out on to highway, a takeover salesman or sales manager actually grabbed my car door handle and asked me to come back inside…I floored it and bought a car at another dealership</p>