Shopping for SUVs

There must be thousands of blogs that go on and on about the pains of car shopping. Let me add one more.

So if you know me, you know that I've been agonizing over this for the past few months. Agonizing from my desk and over lunch and dinner whenever I had the chance to sit down with anyone mildly interested in cars - for the exact reason that I have little interest in cars. I mean, I need it to get around and I would like a nice ride, but I don't know anything about cars other than its shape and color and whether or not it has navigation...

So finally, we get ourselves into serious shopping mode and start collecting quotes, doing some research online, test driving, and sitting down with sales people to really get down and dirty into the numbers. It was quite an annoying experience to walk into the Mercedes dealership, because although we did wind up buying something that was totally in their price range, maybe it was the way we were dressed or who knows, but they wouldn't give us the time of day. Since when have you seen a car salesman be so stuck up and succeed in sales?

In the end, we found ourselves choosing between the '08 Lexus RX400h hybrid and the '09 Acura MDX - the Acura guy tried to convince us that the Lexus RX was actually more comparable to the Acura RDX, but I don't know the details, I just know what I like, and the fact that the RDX used the same chassis as the Honda CRV was a clear sign that - well, if I were to consider the RDX, I should just go buy a CRV...

Anyway, the problem is the body of the RX has gotten a complete revamp with the '10 model, and they will start selling the '10 hybrids in 3 months. They have a $6,000 marketing incentive going until the end of this month to get rid of the old hybrids - and the salesperson was still playing games with us ("we sold them too fast so now the price has gone back up").

The Acura dealer was more cooperative, upfront. So we whip out our Edmunds TMV quote, and he's totally willing to start with that number. I mean this was a little fishy, until we walk into the finance department. They quote us for one APR and then try to get us to sign on another. Are they crazy? (Not to mention trying to sell us loads of warranties and what not...) But btw, this site is great because not only does it give you a quote price, it informs you of the marketing promotions and incentives that dealers are getting on specific models, so you know how much room you have to negotiate.

So despite all the drama, we succeeded in purchasing our first SUV - more to come on its performance after I actually start "consuming" it...