We Bought a New SUV

Happy Cinco de Mayo all!

So I feel like I should have mentioned this awhile ago, but I didn't. And I tried to write about this in a Friday Favorites post (last week) and it was just too long for a favorite, so I changed it into a post of its own...

I never told you all this, but we bought a new car a few months back. I am not sure why I didn't tell you all. So this is how the story goes...back in November I had someone ask me to purchase my car when I was at a local grocery store. I thought it was a bit weird, but the guy was in his 50s and I had seen him before at the store, so I knew it probably wasn't a scam. I told him no that I had no interest and went about my day.

The next day I looked up my cars value (2018 Honda CR-V) on Kelly Blue Book. I must have clicked the wrong link in there because not even 2 hours later I was getting a bunch of local dealerships calling and emailing me about my car. I hadn't even put any of my info in, but you know how the internet is. Anyways, I looked into the price and told Rory about the calls. And at this time, I had about $11K in equity on my SUV.

I was getting about 5 calls a day. It was crazy. I kept telling them I wasn't interested in selling my car. I did talk to the Mercedes dealership more as they were just so persistent. And I dreamed of a Mercedes, but knew it wasn't within our budget.

Fast forward a couple months and we thought, if my car has that much interest, maybe we should sell it and get a family car. Something we can both drive around (even though I drive it mostly) and has more room for the kids as they get older and have friends in the car. 

So we test drove some cars over a couple weeks. We test drove the Acura MDX (like the Honda Pilot but luxury), Audi Q5 and Q7, Volvo XC 60 and XC 90. Also, I did a bunch of research on the cars in between the weekends that we test drove these cars. We also looked at (online) the Genesis GV80, the Infiniti QX60, and the Kia Telluride. I also started following The Car Mom on IG for some negotiating advice, for her amazing car tours and to see what my options out there were. She has a ton of car tours on her website and she has the one we ultimately picked.

We quickly took off the Infiniti and Genesis as they were in Sacramento and we didn't want to drive 2 hours every time we had a service. Then we took off the Acura. I loved my Honda and the Acura was really nice....like super nice, but we wanted something different. And then we took off the Kia Telluride as we would have to order one since our Kia and ones within 250 miles were sold out. And we didn't even have one near us to test drive to see if we liked it.

I have always wanted an Audi and I loved the Q7. The seats in the second and third rows move with a simple push of a button. It is all electronic. It has a great 360 camera, an Audi light that projects to the ground when you open the doors, a great sound system (super important for me), it handled well, had great horsepower, beautiful interior, well made, large moon roof and so many other creature comforts. 

The Volvo XC 90 had a large moon roof, massaging chairs, a cabin air filter, amazing sound system, tons of space, was very fast, had 4 different "road/speed" features (eco, everyday use, dynamic and off road) a refrigerated glove box, so many creature comforts and amazing reliability.

We took another week or two to figure out what we wanted to do. I know both vehicles are luxury vehicles and have great reviews, reliability and are more within our price range (Mercedes and Range Rover are not). But when it came down to it, the Volvo will last longer. The salesman at the Audi dealership told me that the Audi is amazing and that is all he drives, BUT they are short term cars meaning they are meant to last for 100K to 150K miles. The Volvo can go way longer than that. Plus the Volvo has built in booster seats in the back (they are the only vehicle to do this so far). I am a huge fan of that.

So as you can guess, we went with the Volvo XC 90. The XC 60 was amazing and cheaper, but we wanted more room with a third row.

So I introduce you to our car...

And now you know. And no we won't be buying a new car for a long time. Hopefully at least 10 years. 

Car Shopping - Mazda and Toyota

Today we are going to take about Part 2 of our car shopping experience. More specifically the Mazda CX-9 and the Toyota Highland and Rav 4.

We had considered other SUVs, but something always came up that stopped us from looking at them. Maybe it was the miles per gallon, the rating, the price, etc. We also thought about looking at the Hyundai Santa Fe, GMC Denali and Ford Edge, but in the end did not.

The Mazda wasn't even on my radar, but it was definitely on my husband's. He got a hold of his dad's (with permission) Consumer Reports account and started reviewing all SUVs. He looked at everything. He looked at the sizes of each of the vehicles we were looking at, the safety standards, the ratings and compared all features.

I didn't know much about Mazda's, but had never even thought of purchasing one. But I told him we could test drive one.

Mazda CX-9 Grand Touring

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PROS: Turbo engine, sport mode for targeted use of the turbo, hologram feature about the steering wheel on the window that shows your speed, lane departure, speed limit and navigation. It also has bigger wheels, chrome styling on the outside, LED head and tail lights, rain sensing windshield wipers, Bose sound system, rear seat retractable window shield, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, heated seats, keyless start and cross traffic alerts.

MPG: 28/22
Cost: Starts at $42,000

CONS: Aggressive front end (my husband loved this and I didn't. Maybe it's more manly this way), afraid the turbo would highly decrease the MPG that is stated and it did not have ApplePlay or any of those options that almost all other SUVs had.

Toyota Rav-4 Limited

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PROS: The Toyota name. My husband drives a Tundra and we love how well they hold their values and the quality of them. It has LED headlights, a rear spoiler, front and rear parking sonar (makes sure you don't run into things), sunroof, eco and sport modes, lane departure, automatic high beams, automated cruise control, and blind spot monitoring.

MPG: 28/22 (which seems low for a crossover/compact SUV.

Cost: Around $33,000

CONS: It has lower gas mileage for its size and not much bigger than my Subaru Legacy.

Toyota Highlander Limited

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PROS: Again, the Toyota name and quality came into play. At first, we thought this might be too big for us, but then after getting inside of it, it was a great size. It has all the qualities of the Rav4, but heated and cooling seats in the front, ventilated seats on all rows, three rows of seats, better sound system and captains chairs in the second row. These captains chairs have an opening in between them so that kids can walk through to get to the back or move the seat forward. You don't lose the center console area as one folds out and allows for two drinks and a tray area. It also has the rear window shields, roof rack and Toyota all weather floor mats.

MPG: 26/21

Cost: $46,000 (but we got a screaming deal on it)

CONS: The Toyota Entune program has glitches and it did not come with a cargo cover as other models with the same trim did.

Ultimately, I loved the Highlander after the first time I test drove it. It was rated #1 or #2 on almost all mid-size SUV sites and it is built to last. I had a Toyota Tacoma in high school and college and I LOVED that thing. It held its value very well. When I bought it, I got a great deal and then I sold it about 8 years later and made $500 more than I bought it for. Total win. So now we are a Toyota family.

If I had to rank the mid-size SUVs (so not the Rav4 or the CR-V) in my preferences, I would go with the Highlander, tie between the Nissan Murano and Honda Pilot and then the Mazda CX-9.

I hope this helped if you are in the market for a SUV or maybe are thinking about one for your future.

Car Shopping - Honda and Nissan

Car shopping is the worst unless you have all the money in the world and can get exactly what you want and not care how much it costs. But let's be real here, I am not in that position, so we spent weeks and weeks car shopping.

Anytime we could get someone to watch the girls, we went car shopping. We even went on Fridays right after work and picked the girls up at daycare at 5 pm instead of 2 pm because we needed more time. Instead of date nights or days, we went car shopping. It became a chore, but we wanted to see all of our options. We went back to some dealerships two or three times before making our final decision.

I am going to go through the pros and cons of each car that we test drove, so I can give you a better idea of what is out there and how it fit into my family. Now just because we didn't like something, doesn't mean you won't like it. I just want to share my thoughts to help you out so when you car shop maybe you don't have to go to as many places as we did.

I am not going in the order of when we test drove these because we started off with smaller SUVs and realized we needed something bigger for long term. Also, note that I wanted a car that was all wheel drive. Lots of these come in both front wheel or all wheel drive.

Let's start out with Honda.

We test drove the CR-V and the Pilot, but at different times and at different dealerships.

Honda CR-V Touring/Grand Touring

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PROS: This smaller SUV has newly been redesigned for 2017 and it had all the bells and whistles. Lane departure notification via vibration and moving you back into the lane. Adaptive cruise control, LED headlights, rain sensing windshield wipers, hands free tailgate lift, bigger tires, upgraded sound system, the latest and best safety features, priced right at $33,000 for what we were looking for, heated seats, the styling and Honda sensing system. The MPG ranged from 26 to 32.

CONS: I didn't like the placement of the shifter. It felt weird being so high. It was almost the same size as my Subaru, so it didn't make sense to purchase it when we were looking for more room for the future. Not much room to negotiate on price since the supply is low on Honda's, but the demand is higher.

Honda Pilot Touring

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PROS: Big SUV, lots of room between the second and third rows (big enough for an adult), seats in the third row fold down completely, back bench area (you can flip a piece in the back right by the tailgate for a harder surface, ideal for tailgating), DVD system for kids, heated seats, wide windshield, Honda sensing system, blind spot indicator, when you put on the blinker it shows you on an image on the display screen of what is beside you for better parking and to not hit the person next to you, power tailgate, captain chairs in the second row, three zones of heating and cooling and a big moon roof.

MPG: 27/19

CONS: There is a plastic compartment between the captains chairs that kids would step on to get to the back if they didn't use the method of moving the seats forward, buttons for shifting into different gears, not as styling as the new CR-V, price of $47,000 for what we wanted (ie the Touring or above).

Next, we will move to the Nissan Murano.

Nissan Murano SL

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PROS: By far the comfiest seats we experienced. They were the softest leather and comfy to sit in for long periods of time. We loved the look of the Murano, the smart shifting for no jerking feeling when accelerating, vehicle speed sensitivity (more nibble while at low speeds and more rigid at faster speeds), LED running and tail lights, power lift gate, heated seats, Bose sound system, 360 camera images of the car for parking and backing up, full curtain airbags, great looks, huge moon roof and blind spot warning.

MPG: 28/21
Price: $42,000 (that was with the current discounts going on)
Interest: 0%

CONS: The very back windows are so small, so the sight lines are difficult in the back. We also didn't like the wood paneling in the car as much. It was ok in the gray version, but almond and brown (brown was awful) looked cheap. The engine didn't seem to get up and go as fast as others did and it did not have a third row seat option.

I am going to break this into two posts as this one is getting long and I still want to profile the Mazda CX-9 and the Toyota Highlander and Rav 4. So stay tuned for part 2.