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10-26-2001, 10:44 PM

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Happy to join the club

I will pick up my new ’02 TL Type S w/nav tomorrow and I am pretty pumped, but it took me awhile to get here. I started car shopping almost 6 months ago and went on 12 or so test drives, including (in no particular order) the Audi A4 (1.8 and 2.8), VW Passat, Honda Accord, Subaru Legacy, Toyota Camry V6, Mazda Protégé, Infiniti I30, BMW 325zi, Nissan Altima ‘02, and Nissan Maxima SE. As you can see, I was all over the board. I wanted a multi-purpose car w/automatic transmission that could serve on three-day weekend trips for a family w/two small kids, would get me to and from work/train station in comfort, and was fun to drive. Rear wheel drive was not an option here in the snowy western Boston suburbs. My criteria in order of importance were (1) reliability (see ya, VW and Audi), (2) fun-to-drive (see ya, Camry), (3) comfort (see ya, Protégé), (4) room (see ya, BMW) and (5) fuel economy (see ya, Maxima, I-30 and Altima). I didn’t want to spend more than $35k. The Max and Altima were the toughest to dismiss, but why pay at or near sticker for the Altima when you can get the TL Type S for not much more? The Max was very close, but just drove a little bit too big for me. If I did more highway driving, it might have won out. At the end of the day, the TL Type-S took the prize because it was the most versatile of the cars, although I did have my reservations: (a) the cost-cutting in areas like paint and interior design, (b) the very average stereo and (c) the difficulty in getting a car seat secured properly. Per an earlier post, (c) almost knocked the TL off my list; however, I tried one of the new LATCH seats and it was fine (thank heavens). I figured that I could fix (b) with $500 and a visit to the local car audio store and that (a) was a matter of vanity more than anything really meaningful (I made sure to ask the dealer for some touch-up paint, though!).

I negotiated the deal by e-mailing bids to a couple of local dealerships, then following with calls to shop the lowest accepted bid. I wasn’t fixed on getting the Navigation System, but figured that I’d take it if I could get the car for under 31k (excluding tax). I accomplished my budgetary goal without any difficulty, something anyone shopping for a TL in the Boston area should keep in mind as they shop for the car.

Oh, color. I wanted anything but white, my wife wanted anything but blue. I’m tired of black-on-black (we have a wagon of that color and it isn’t a lot of fun in the summer, even with AC), so we compromised on Noble Green. “Yeck”, you say, but I kind of like it – I’m a 35 year old guy with two toddlers. Anything else would have screamed “mid-life crisis”. I promise to post some pictures in decent light as soon as possible. Thanks for all of your direct and indirect help. This board was a big selling point for me. How did people shop for cars before the Internet?

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