The C4C program. I had an old minivan that I expected was only gonna last me a year or two more. I had to put MORE money into it to fix some problems. I had heard about the legislation being discussed but had no idea they would pass it so fast.
Next thing I know, the legislation is long since passed, and is already active.
I have to read up, and decide what car to get, if I am going to be able to take advantage of the program at all (I still wasn't sure if I could or not -- that is, I knew my car would qualify, I didn't know if my economics would make it feasible.) It only makes sense to participate. I mean, $4,500 for a car that is barely worth $1000 if that, and that I need to pour hundreds more into rather soon, and who knows how much after that? Or my other option is wait another year or two for my car to die and then buy used for only a few thousand, getting a whole new set of problems..
So I decide on a basic price point -- read: cheap. I go to each of the major manufacturers websites and look through their vehicles. I write down sedans/coupes, hatchbacks, and pickups. I read a bunch on many of them.
The idea that I could get a sedan for WELL under 10K is very attractive. However, going with A/T raises the price up a bit. I can't confidently learn M/T in time to make it reasonable to buy a M/T vehicle (if anybody wants to teach me in the area, I still wish to learn.
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Most pickups wind up being eliminated because they are wayyy too barebones for the price; if I were to get what I want with a pickup, it would have been too expensive in most cases. .
I really need cargo space so I almost eliminate the sedans/coupes. I do look at a few. The main one I look at (Nissan Versa) I decide looks/seems WAY too cheap. I mean fake plastic fog light indentations? And a cheap looking interior? C'mon! Possibly a decent choice if I wasn't as flexible in my purchase price.
Many cars just arn't available locally. (well, I could have traveled a wee bit to see some of them.) I go to one dealership that's supposed to have three different brands that I want to look at and they have one -- the hyundai accent which I decide looks like it's styling is no different than a 1980s era ford escort. The guy comes down in price majorly (for a stocked model) without much of any effort on my part. The guy is also clueless and when he says he has no dealer plates available to test drive, when I said "I'll wait.. I'm not in a hurry" he thinks I mean I want to leave. I meant that I'd wait for someone currently out on a test drive to come back, DUH! I eliminate the Hyundai, Kia(s) (which they didn't have), and Chevy Aveo which hadn't really made the list anyways.
I go to the Toyota dealer. They are out of most of the Scions I want to look at, and they don't have any Yaris Hatchbacks. (I could have travelled 20-30 minutes away and looked at them, but nah... I basically had almost already decided on the fit.) I DO like one of the scions, but it's a bit more expensive than I wanted, and the one I thought I wanted I felt seemed too small (they only had a used one on the lot to look at anyways.) I could have driven a bit further to check out the scion i wanted and the yarises but I decided not to. Toyota build quality seems really nice.
There really wasn't much of anything from GM or Chrysler I wanted (well, one or two of the pontiacs but they are killing the brand anyways.) Most everything in their lines was too expensive for my price range. (People wonder why they're losing billions of dollars and failing... uhm... how about making some cars for the average market?)
Sadly there wasn't much from Ford I wanted, except a small pickup which I had already eliminated. (We've been a ford family for several cars now.) Our Fords have done pretty decently each lasting 13 years or more before we had to get rid of them due to diminishing returns.
I quickly eliminate the Cube, and a few other cargo-like vehicles for various reasons.
From the begining I had basically focused in on the Fit. Overwhelming positive reviews, a large number of really nice features STANDARD, really nice advanced styling (doesn't look like a car from the 80s as previously mentioned), a half-decent price point (although a bit more than I wanted to spend). . . . and tons of cargo space, probably best-in-class if not nearly so. I also like the idea that they are sold in 70 countries and have been out several years. This means that if something happens and I need parts, I might be able to find them on the used market -- in contrast the Yaris 5-door hatchback model is brand new, not widely available, and even the 3 door doesn't seem so common.
In the end my research took probably two weeks. I only test drove the Fit, and only looked at other cars very casually. By the time I was ready to buy, they had had that thurday night "the money has run out" scare (even though earlier the cars.gov website said they had 756 million dollars left.) By the time I bought, congress had approved additional funds.
And here I am. Now I just gotta spend more $$ on my vehicle. Thanks FF.net!
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