Car Shopping

Thought it might be helpful to write about the car shopping experience. We've talked about a new car to replace the FP Gal's 30 year old Dodge. Talks started some months ago but really only got under way in earnest about three weeks ago. The focus was to have more room for kids. A modern sedan barely has room for two car seats in back. And if one of those is rear-facing then one of the front seats has to be pushed all the way forward.
So we thought about either a mini-van or a small SUV. My masculinity isn't threatened by a mini-van but I think that SUV's handle a bit better in Minnesota's six months of winter. But either one would be fine. Our priorities were something like Space, Reliability, Price, Function, Mileage.
Some quick web searches told me that for reliability we'd be looking at either a Honda or a Toyota so we focused on them. All of the other variables were pretty equal between the two with a couple of exceptions. The Rav4 was better on space and function.
We looked at mini-vans but they were a bit too expensive for what we wanted and a bit more space than we knew we needed. If baby #3 comes in the next few years we may need to upgrade again. Of course, my car is nearly seven years old right now so we'll probably be ready for some shopping.
We preferred Toyota. We thought that the recent SUA problem is more hype than real. And the 0% financing is pretty darn good. So, we've got ourselves a new car.