Car Shopping - the Final Episode

Welcome to the final episode of Car Shopping, the story of Randy and Georgia purchasing a new vehicle. Before the break the Desert Olsons had visited a number of car dealerships, and tried on quite a few car models. They finally came to the conclusion that the truck would be sold rather than Georgia’s older car. Randy’s at-home non-vacation was rapidly filling up with buying a car.

So, what would we need to replace a truck? Well, there is Randy’s bicycle to be hauled to the start line for bicycle rides. The occasional cargo will also need to fit in, like stuff for the garden, and wood for Randy’s projects.

But, since Georgia will be driving this vehicle, she needs a pollen filter, being the delicate flower she is. What vehicle would provide all of this?

The next round of car shopping took us again to the Honda dealership. This time we got a more laid-back salesman. Whew! We looked again at the CR-V, and the 2011 Element. However, we were either not pleased about the visibility or the cargo space. Honda was crossed off the list.

Because of the Consumer Report ratings, and the cargo space, we went back to the Toyota dealership. The salesman again showed us the RAV 4 that they had on the lot. It seemed like it might work, but we told the salesman that we were purchasing the car in slow motion. We really wanted time to think about what would work best.

 

After we got home we did more research. We actually read the product information that they gave us, in addition to the other sources at Edmunds.com and truecar.com (You can also find the 2011 Toyota RAV 4 Product Information online as well.)

In our research we found that the pollen filter only came with the Ltd version of the RAV 4. Not surprisingly, the Ltd also comes with a higher price tag. The dealership did not have one in stock, so perhaps we would order one, in blue, of course.

Back to the Toyota dealership. We told the salesman that we needed to get Georgia a pollen filter in her car, so we were interested in ordering a RAV 4, but we didn’t want leather seats. He found out that all of the remaining 2011 RAV 4 units with the Ltd package only have leather seats, and the 2012 models are not available yet. Would the base model with the “Value Package” work for us if we could get a pollen filter installed in it? Hmmmm.

So we bought ourselves a 2011 RAV 4. We decided that some accessories were in order: a cargo cover to protect/hide purchases, as well as a mat to protect the car from the loads, including bicycles. The two accessories had to be ordered, and would not be available until the next week.

The accessories finally arrived, and the air filter was installed. We were ready to take Randy and his bicycle to the starting point of a ride. While it takes a few more minutes to put his bicycle in the RAV 4 than it did the truck, the new car (christened “Blue Jay”) is much more versatile, and has much better visibility.