Our new car

Yup - we bought a new car.
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I feel a little guilty actually. Our old car has been really good to us. K-chan, our 2001 Toyota Echo, was our first car and has really gone the distance for us. Unfortunately, we needed some additional room and safety features. The Echo isn't being made any longer and it's replacement isn't quite as nice.

We took a while sifting through reviews and info, visiting dealerships and so on before narrowing our choices and taking test drives. It didn't take long before we settled into wanting a wagon type vehicle. Something a little bigger than a hatchback, but not a mini van. This brought the field down to two major competitors with one additional look-and-see.

Our two main contenders were the Mazda Mazda5 and the Hyundai Elantra Touring. We test drove both of these vehicles in the trim level that we were looking at on one afternoon when Darcy's mom was visiting - thus allowing us to go together and Moira free. Afterwards, we were still undecided. We decided to also try out the Toyota Matrix, just for comparison. As it turned out, price wise, the Hyundai was better than the Mazda, but the Matrix may have been good as well as apparently RIM employees get a discount at the dealership we visited. In the end, and for the better with the eventual recall, we decided against the Matrix. My Dad also test drove them. He liked the Hyundai even though he really preferred the Mazda. He made some good points about the benefits of the Mazda, despite the higher price, but most of the things he mentioned were more important for heavy drivers like he is (commuting, lots of highway driving, racking up the kilometres, etc).

Since we had driven it first and weren't sure, we decided to try the Hyundai Elantra Touring again. This time we all went on a Saturday, we even moved Moira's car seat in so she could come with us. While it didn't have all the bells and whistles that the Mazda did (sliding rear doors particularly), it did encompass what we needed and was better price wise and in fuel economy. We went home afterwards to evaluate our info and figure out pricing.

The next week we went back and worked it out, getting the $500 optional fee for stuff we didn't need or want knocked off and also getting the full $1000 rebate off the initial quoted price. Not bad for the conflict avoiding crappy negotiators that we are. We also got a cargo cover in the back, to block the view of the trunk when we wanted to, and all weather floor mats (which were discounted a little for us). We had the option of getting the last car they had in the trim level we wanted there. It was in one of the colours we liked so we went with it, rather than wait for a car to be shipped and arrive right around my due date. Turned out that we were the only ones to have ever driven it, as it was the car we took out on our second test drive (the first test drive had been in a car that had been sold since).

A week ago we picked up our 2010 Hyundai Elantra Touring in "Carbon Grey Mist" (dark grey). The black cloth interior was standard in all trims/colours.

So far so good. The car definitely has more pick up than our Echo and I'm appreciating the power locks and so on. The transition has been quirky as we slowly figure out where all the buttons are and where to store our stuff. Moira is quite happy with "new car" though. We got her seat and the infant car seat installed on the weekend after we picked up the car. Darcy is particularly enjoying the seat warming function.

Now, if only the new car smell was less nausea inducing. Bleah.