We’ve recently had a most satisfying experience buying a new car.  We hate buying cars.  The experience usually leaves us angry and totally frustrated with the concept of ‘commission’ sales and extremely disappointed with the salesman, the sales manager and the dealership in general.  We’ve been ‘burned’ in the past and resolved not to go through it all again.  In fact we had threatened to make our son-in-law handle our next vehicle acquisition.

We’ve been dithering around this decision for the last year but we did finally decide that it was time to seriously investigate replacing our ageing Jeep Liberty.  Our Jeep has served us well.  Imagine our disappointment when we came to realize that Chrysler/Jeep had decided some years ago not to continue to make the Liberty but instead chose to produce inadequate products like the Patriot.  Hell, we might even have considered the Jeep Commander if we had determined that it met our needs as an urban four wheel drive alternate to the Liberty.  

We did our due diligence; we spent time trying to visit as many of the dealerships in our neighbourhood that had vehicles of the class and in the price range that we thought were appropriate for us. Even this simple act of window shopping was a huge challenge for us because of our schedule, and the severity of the local winter this year.  I do have to say that the arrogance of the dealerships that decided that they wouldn’t be open on Sundays in a regional culture that supports Sunday shopping were all given a miss when it came down to the final decision making.  I mean, for heaven’s sake; I can go spend thousands on furniture, electronics and almost anything in this community including a new home on a Sunday, but then you tell me I can’t shop for a new car.  Somebody out there is out of touch with the reality of this community and region.  

So we did the research on line and especially with the help of the latest Consumer Reports for the 2014 model year and weren’t able to get near more than two dealerships before we narrowed down our choices.  

Those dealerships that refused to be available on Sundays probably saved us from a repeat of the anguish and anger we’ve experienced in the past with slick sales guys, intractable sales managers and  the pushy business managers masquerading as finance guys with their incessant attempts to up sell on us on all the little things that have the most margin for the dealership, like extended warranties and rust proofing and upholstery conditioning and rock chip protection.  Quite honestly, if those items are so damned important but a vehicle manufacturer doesn’t see that it is important enough to build it into the basic product then I don’t want the product, as it is obviously substandard and what’s worse is that their own sales and distribution network doesn’t even trust the product. 

 Anyway after the analysis using on-line resources and the Consumer Reports documentation We decided to take a detailed look at and try to arrange a test drive of a suite of four choices; the Volkswagen Tiguan, the Hyundai Santa Fe with a quick look at the Tucson for good measure, the Toyota Highlander and the Jeep Cherokee.

We went with the Valkswagen Tiguan from Norden Autohaus.  The Hyundai product was a strong second choice, and in fact we might have considered the Tucson.  The Toyota Highlander is a lovely vehicle but a bit pricey.  We have no idea what the Cherokee is like.  Speaking of arrogance, what is with Chrysler running that massive ad campaign and then not providing vehicles to the dealerships to meet the demand?  Oh, and probably the tipping point that drove us away from the Cherokee was running into another of ‘god’s gift to vehicle sales’ which didn’t help the Chrysler/Jeep dealership’s chances at at all.  We’re very disappointed with Chrysler Jeep.

The sales team at Norden Autohaus were exceptional!  We’d recommend visiting them any time you are in the market for a vehicle, new or used.  Seriously.  give them a look.  they are part of the GoAuto network and they seem to work really hard.

So now in our garage we have two Volkswagens, being an EOS and a Tiguan, and then of course there is the obligatory motorcycle, while languishing out on the parking pad we have the Jeep Liberty which I can’t quite bear to part with just yet.  Wait?!  What?!  The motorcycle isn’t obligatory for a guy on the wrong side of fifty?  Who said?!!  They must be wrong.  Its definitely more important than a darned boat when you live this far inland and away from any decent lakes.  And those ATVs and sleds are just plain silly if you don’t have some decent recreational property to tear up.