Now, for an update, Weeds JUST left the on deck circle as of Wednesday and Jame "Lil' Jimmy" Norton is still tucked away sweetly in his Netflix sleeve.
If you would like a reason for all the tardied distractedness, here is your answer:
That is not our exact car, but it has been too rainy and gray to get out and take a good picture of it. Marlene and I bought a new Infiniti G35x. It is freakin' sweet and it was bizarre to drive a car off the lot with 11 miles on the odometer.
I had spent the last 2.5 weeks reading every bit of literature on several models of cars, test driving numerous cars, and going over the order of paint color preference. We looked at a weird variety of cars with our most important quality being all-wheel drive. We drove an Audi A4, Subaru, Jeep Patriot, Lincoln MKZ, in addition to the Infiniti. Here is the low-down for each car:
Audi - It was a really solid car that handled very well. However to get a comparable engine, we had to spend $7k more than the Infiniti or take the putzier engine. The navigation wasn't touchscreen either. The Germans built some nice cars, but the technology scares them shitless. I would recommend they team up with the technologically inclined Japanese, but we know how that turned out the first time around. USA, USA, USA!!!
Subaru - Let's set aside the fact that our salesman was a complete tool who never asked what we were looking for in a car and wouldn't stop talking about his hideous wife. Also, this math genius was trying to talk us into the 60 month loan at 5.9% APR instead of the 24 month loan at 2.9% APR. His dizzying logic was that since it was simple interest, we could just pay it off in 24 months and it would be no problem. I don't even know where to start with all the things that are wrong with that statement. Now that we have that out of the way, the main problem with Subaru was that we just couldn't get it "luxurious" enough for us. Not to say that we want a Bentley, but we definitely plan on keeping this car for a long time and want to have nice leather, bluetooth, navigation, heated seats, etc. The Subaru just couldn't offer that. The engine was a bit disappointing as well.
Jeep Patriot - I should have done more research and I would have known that the Jeep Patriot, even though it looks about the same size as an older Jeep Cherokee, is not even close. It is built on a car chasis and barely clears 7" of ground clearance. All in all, it sucked and I was very disappointed. The only option would have been to make the jump to the Liberty, but since we have a compact spot, that was a no go.
Lincoln MKZ - I like the look alot and was hoping it would be a great car because the bottomline was that it was CHEAP. $500 under invoice with ridiculous financing (0% for 60 months or something). It was far and away the quietest, smoothest car I have ever ridden in. HOWEVER, it was a dog. Mash the pedal to the floor and all you get is an empty gas tank. It is considered an entry level luxury, but I would have placed it with the upper regular sedans. Detroit has a long ways to go before they even come close to catching up with Lexus or Infiniti. I would have picked the Subaru over the Lincoln. The car wasn't the worst part though. The worst was when I had to break up with the salesman. This guy was calling and emailing my constantly afterward. I broke up with him at the dealership and then again over email. All those girls that I kept calling until they changed their numbers, I feel really bad about what I did. I know what you had to go through. The creepy breathing in the phone (oh, wait, he was a smoker with stinking breath). The trying to hard (undercutting the already disgustingly low price). I must have been a mess in my hayday.
Here is what sold us on the Infiniti: the salesman left us alone because the car sold itself, the luxury for the price was perfect (BMWs were $10k more, and Subarus didn't have the luxury), and it looks and drives awesome. The salesman even let us take one home to see if it would fit in our compact spot which is next to another compact spot (with a Chevy Tahoe parked in it) and a concrete pole. It fit and we were sold.
I have a couple of other stories, but they will have to wait. And hopefully not a month.
