Sunday, February 08, 2009

Car buying

For years I used to drive a Toyota Corolla. I fell in love with this type of vehicle after I drove one from Cape Town to Windhoek (A distance of 1500km). Compared to other vehicles I've used on that same trip, it was just brilliant. Admittedly I never had the good fortune of driving an executive class vehicle on this stretch of road, but as far as family saloons go, it was hard to fault. So when I bought my first car, I searched high and low until I found one of these vehicles and bought it.

I loved my little Corolla, it did the job well and it almost never gave me any trouble at all. Over the years I helped friends and family to buy vehicles, which brought me in contact with vehicles such as the VW Polo, Golf and Jetta, a Honda Ballade. The Honda got closest. The result is that my sister and my father in law have a vehicle like this now.

I believe that a properly constructed automobile should not require anything besides normal maintenance and wear-and-tear materials and parts for the lifetime of the vehicle, and though this is hardly true for ANY vehicle on the road today, I got pretty darn close with the Corolla. Over the course of six years I replaced an exhaust manifold (that was a weak point on the 1997 thru 2002 models) and a clutch, and the clutch could be seen as a wear-and-tear article. I sold the vehicle last week with 213000km on the odometer and just about everything in it's original state, even the exhaust system.

After singing the praises of this vehicle, you're probably wondering why I moved on. Well, I was beginning to feel nervous about all those factory-original parts, but I also wanted a newer, safer vehicle to replace it with.

What to replace it with, with a budget of no more than R100 000? The obvious choice was another Toyota Corolla, so I tracked down a good looking 2005 model and took it for a test drive. Now while I bought my first corolla based on the surprising ride quality, this time I couldn't help but feel that the Corolla has become boring. It stills gets the job done and if I actually bought one I suppose it would have been equally dependable, but it failed to win me over on the test drive.

During the December holidays, my brother in law (who works for Toyota) arrived in a brand new Corolla, so I had a chance to sample this one as well. Two words: body roll. This is probably caused in part by it's 1.2 metric ton weight. It was especially irritating while driving in strong cross winds that required frequent corrections.

It seemed clear to me that my next vehicle wouldn't be another Corolla. I'd love to drive a Lexus, but those are still a bit out of my financial reach.

The French options were out of the question: no Peugeot, Renault or Citroën. I heard too many horror stories, for example, a friend of mine had the hand brake on his Scenic fail, only to find that repairing it would cost R12 000, and apparently the cost of replacing a timing belt on that same model will set you back R8000. You certainly don't want one of these out of motor plan.

Ford seems to have come to the table with a couple of really decent vehicles. I love the look of the new Focus, but finding one within budget seemed just about impossible.

VW's Jetta was a strong contender. I took a 2005 2-liter for a test drive and I liked it. It had everything except cruise control, and the price was right, but the fake wood inserts, which were showing signs of wear, didn't exactly agree with me. If I found one of these without the fake wood...

I spent quite a bit of time trying to track down a Honda Civic, for the simple reason that Honda wins the JD Power CSI just about every year. Like the Ford, it was hard to find one that would fit the budget, age and mileage constraints.

Finally there was the BMW 3-series and the Audi A4. These are executive level vehicles, but they fit the budget and I've always wanted to drive a Diesel, so I included at least the Diesel models in my search. The Audi then disqualified itself on budget constraints.

There are so many things counting against BMW that I had a hard time convincing myself that it is an option. First and foremost, there is the image that goes with a BMW, an image that isn't quite me. If you can mentally draw a picture of me, in my baggy pants and T-shirt, day-old beard and well worn comfy shoes, walking into the dealership and expressing an interest in such a vehicle, you'll understand. The dealer almost didn't take me seriously. Secondly, it is well known that BMW drivers aren't considered the most patient and well behaved drivers on the road, a club I wasn't certain I wanted to belong to. Thirdly, it is well known that BMW does not play in the same league as the Japanese makes when it comes to plain old never-break-down-keep-going-forever territory. On the upside though, it is the only rear wheel drive vehicle within my budget constraints, and the only one with cruise control (a nice to have, but very... nice). And I have friends who are very happy with it and on paper it looks like really good value for money. So I convinced myself that if I find a 320d priced at or below book value I'll consider it.

Then it happened. I found a BMW 320d at a very good price, to the extend that I could even drive it a year and sell it for close to what I've bought it for. So I ended up buying my first BMW.

Did I make a mistake? Probably. Only time will tell.