Searching for the PERFECT Family Car...Nov 02 '04 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line If you're a gear-head who buys cars based on horsepower and acceleration, or a style-hound who buys cars based on image, ignore my FAMILY CAR oriented reviews...
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. Seems like only yesterday that I was driving out of the dealership in my last "perfect" family car --- my 2002 Volvo S40 sedan. Well, my 36-month lease is just about expired on that ride, and its time to get out and look for a replacement ride. On top of that, we are very dissatisfied with the reliability record lately on our Land Rover Freelander. Consequently, this fall is shaping up to be a time when we buy two new cars at once. And so, we're thinking, one "perfect family car" and one "perfect family commuter/backup car". Our current candidate list looks something like this: * Primary family car: a reliable luxury sedan (Lexus ES, Mercedes C-class, BMW 3-series, Volvo S60) or a good-sized reliable SUV (Toyota Highlander or Sequoia, Honda Pilot, BMW X5 or X3) * Backup family car: a reliable small sedan (Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Scion xC) or a smaller performance wagon (Subaru Impreza RS, Saab 92X, Volvo V50) What are we going to end up? Who knows....we have not yet begun the test drives. Before we go on drive #1 though, we're going to figure out what factors matter to us and what don't, and we're going to have a darn good idea going into it which cars are safest, which cars have problem areas where, which cars are expensive or cheap to maintain, which cars get good gas mileage, etc., etc. I do know one thing though. The things that matter to us probably aren't the kinds of things that matter to a lot of other drivers. We're looking for the Perfect Family Car. Nothing else. Here's where our priorities lie... Things That Matter, Things That Don't... When you're a suburban Dad-Man kind of car buyer, your priorities are probably a little bit different than the mo-head who writes car reviews for Motor Trend magazine. (At least they should be --- I know some of us do have a tough time growing up though...) Even here on Epinions, some folks are entirely too enamored of engine size, not that there's anything wrong with that, after all, some folks (the non-Dad-Man kind) have a right to buy performance out the wazoo, if that's what floats their boats. I'm looking for a good family car. I want it to have some modicum of style, and I want it to be fun for me to drive, but I need it to do well on the basic Family Criteria. Namely: Safety: The safer the car, the better chance it has of getting a Mom-approved rating. Mom likes Volvos with their steel beams everywhere and airbags everywhere kind of approach. Mom will be browsing around the NHTSA and IIHS web sites to see how any candidate vehicles fare on safety tests. Mom will also be digging around in Volvo literature and building up a checklist to see how many of Volvo's features are being incorporated into competing vehicles. We're also smart enough to know that bigger is NOT always better, after all, the vehicles that fail the rollover tests most often tend to be big, hulking SUVs and the big, beefy crew-cab pickups. Practical Spaciousness: Driver comfort is always welcome, but for the family ride, back seat ergonomics are almost more important than the view from the front seat. There must be room in the back seat for three passengers, it must be easy to get children safety seats buckled into place. It would be nice if the driver seat wasn't too inviting for little people to kick, but we all know that's a fantasy. Drink holders, and lights in the back seat are good. Rear A/C vents are good too --- bonus if it can also be controlled from the back. The trunk has to be able to carry luggage, strollers, toys, and drink coolers, plus inflatable rafts for swim days. SUVs or sport wagons must have practical cargo areas with lots of room to store kid stuff, plus fold-flat seats. 3rd row seating is always a bonus, but we'll see what we get. Reliability: Consumer Report and J.D. Power data are going to play a BIG role in our car buying decision. We got burned when we bought our Land Rover Freelander (a fun car to drive, not so fun car to wait for as it had constant warranty repairs performed on it). We need a car that does not break down, no matter what you to do it. Personally, I don't really care if I get stranded someplace. I do care about getting stuck someplace when I have little people with me. Economy: If the world's safest, most practical, utterly dependable car comes along, it won't matter to me if its outside the reality of the family budget. Whatever we get has to be affordable. It can't break down too often because we don't want to spend our money on repair jobs. Insurance needs to be affordable, though if you're buying a practical car with a good safety record, it probably will be. We need a car that's not just affordable to get into, but that stays affordable over the next several years. Total Cost of Ownership --- that's what we're looking at. Total non-factors to us Dad Man kinds of guys are most of the factors that other reviewers are probably honing in on. I don't care if it can accelerate like the Dickens, or if its slower than a molasses-eating turtle in January. I don't care if it makes people "Ooooh" and "Ahhhhh" or if it makes them "Bleeeech!" I don't care. I care about whether it makes sense for a suburban family with 2.2 children, a dog named Pete and an occasional ice chest, stroller, and kitchen sink. Car Classes That Make Sense for Families... Back in the 1960s and 1970s, families bought station wagons. In the 1980s, they bought mini-vans. In the 1990s, they bought SUVs. Now, they're starting to buy station wagons again, even when some manufacturers refuse to acknowledge the reality that they're making nothing more than old-fashioned station wagons (witness the SUV-wannabes like the Porsche Cayenne and the Nissan Murano, which our family refers to as "El Cochino Marrano"). Most of the new breed of not-really-SUVs,-really-station-wagons aren't particularly good family cars though, often because of poor cargo area implementations and excessive emphasis on power over practicality and economy. For a family, I feel like the BEST car classes are (in order): * Sedan (most comfort, most bang for buck, highly underrated) * Mini-van (most space, best family comfort on trips --- the ultimate suburban assault vehicle) * Crew-cab full-size pickup (huge, kind of ugly, but awesome practicality) * SUV (the perennial favorite of soccer moms everywhere, popular but highly overrated) Family guys should rule out: * Convertibles (obviously) * Sports cars (even the ones with hard tops) * Coupes (putting kids in the backseat will grow tired fast) * Regular or extended cab pickups (turning off front-seat airbags is a stupid alternative to safety) * Super luxury cars (you'll cry when Junior spills chocolate whip on the fine Corinthian leather) * Motorcycles (although I did see a family of 5 riding a moped once when I was in Mexico) * Segways Information You Should Know... Opinions and car reviews are all well and fine, not to mention fun to read, but I'd hate to be the sap who buys a lemon just because some bonehead on a web site said it was "cool". I'm a firm believer in "know before you go", so I like to dig around and figure out what cars I want, and I want to know ahead of time three basic things: 1) Is it a safe car?, 2) Is it a reliable car?, and 3) Can I afford it? I know all these things before I ever set foot in a dealer showroom. You can too. Just read a few reliable information sources and you'll be ready to banter with the best "closers" a dealership can throw at you! Here are a few of my favorite "good" sources of car info: NHTSA The U.S. Government tests cars and evaluates their safety performance. Some manufacturers will tell you things like, "We get a 5-star Crash Test rating from the federal government." (You tend not to hear about when the car's ratings aren't so good...) You can check the ratings yourself online. The web site is: www.safercars.gov The site also has quite a bit of food for thought in the area of car safety. Look at their recommendations, buyers guides, and other information. If you're thinking about SUVs or big pickups, take the time to check out their rollover records. If you're thinking about buying a used car, you can use the site to lookup information about known defects and any mandatory recalls on a model you might want. By the way, my kids loved watching the video clips showing how the government conducts their crash tests...fun stuff! Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Besides the government, the insurance industry has a vested interest in knowing how accident prone any given car might be. Some car dealers will tell you things like, "We have a 'Good' rating from the IIHS." (Browsing around the test results, I suspect you'll never hear such a phrase from anyone selling Chevrolet Cavaliers.) But of course, you can browse around the site before you go to the showroom so you'll know ahead of time what models are safe and which aren't. The web site is: www. iihs.org Consumer Reports Read the magazine, read their car buying guides, check out their web site for additional rating and recommendations: www.consumerreports.org Consumer Reports is independent. Its kind of an egghead operation that does a ton of number crunching and statistical data, but if you know what cars are troublesome and what are dependable, nobody else has better data: not even J.D. Powers (their data is a good reflection on recent quality trends, but Consumer Reports beats 'em handily on long-term dependability). They do have reliability information available online, but only if you're a subscriber. If you are in the market for a new car though, paying a few bucks for a Consumer Reports subscription is a small price to pay to avoid potential huge headaches down the road. J.D. Power Associates For new car quality assessment, its hard to beat the information compiled by J.D. Power and Associates. These folks do an excellent job polling new car owners to find out what kinds of defects their new cars have and how good dealers and manufacturers are about addressing problems. The web site is: www.jdpower.com/cc/auto/ Quality assessments use a circle rating system. A 5-circle vehicle should be expected to have some of the best initial quality in the industry. J.D. Powers and Consumer Reports ratings are both important, but Consumer Reports is, IMHO, a better predictor of long-term dependability and durability whereas J.D. Power is a better predictor of which cars might be lemons. Combine the J.D. Power circle ratings with the Consumer Reports durability ratings and you should have a very good predictor of a vehicle's overall quality, both now and over time. Edmunds For years I've bought the small pulp paper car price guides that Edmunds publishes at least a couple times each model year. There are separate guides for new cars and used cars. Pick up the guides on your local newsstand, or check out the pricing info on their web site: www.edmunds.com The value of Edmunds is that they tell you what constitutes a "good deal" on a given car. They tell you what the MSRP is for a vehicle, and what the dealer pays for that vehicle. They also tell you what kinds of final prices buyers are negotiating on that kind of car. Only saps pay MSRP, and totally stupid people pay higher. Anyone with a brain in their head at least asks for a discount, and Edmunds can help you know how much of a discount you should be getting. Look for the small type links when you work through the Total Vehicle Price process. They show you things like current manufacturer incentives to the dealer, special lease incentives, and special limited time low-interest financing options. These can sometimes have a huge impact on your bottom line, and should influence your decision if you work the angles to your own advantage. Intellichoice Intellichoice keeps a finger on the pulse of car prices, and their magazine and web site are great sources of information on current deals and incentives that can help you score a real bargain. The web site is: www.intellichoice.com Like the Edmunds site, they show MSRP, dealer invoice, and target "good deal" prices for each model, and there are links to have local dealers email you price bids for a specified car. This can also work to your advantage since you can shop without having to drive around and dicker. The downside is that you must know exactly what you want, sight unseen. (Some of us still like slamming doors, kicking the tires, and doing the test drives --- call us old-fashioned.) The Importance of an Open Mind... Think about what's important to you. Find out information to back up what you already know. Go test drive some cars and get the car that's right for your family. And when shopping, keep in mind that the best way to get what you really need is to never, ever limit your options too quickly. Do not fall in love with a car. There are other cars out there, there are other dealers who would like to do business with you. Don't even fall into the trap of deciding a specific car class. Gravitate towards the mini-vans if that's what you think you want, but don't fall into the trap of HAVING to have one. Be open to the idea that a dealer might have something on the lot that represents a better value --- maybe a decked out luxury sedan that's an '04 on a lot full of incoming '05s. Maybe a bigger SUV that the factory has huge rebate incentives and 0.0 percent financing on. Just keep your options open and you'll leave the door open to getting the best possible deal you can get on your new car. Until next time, see you on the road. This fall, I'll probably be behind the wheel of a loaner or a demo model, checking out the new rides in my quest to find the PERFECT family vehicle for the Mrkstvns family. Stay tuned. The individual car reviews should be commencing shortly. Gentlemen, start your engines....  |
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