Ranting Canuck

Yesterday Heather and I went car shopping again, this time we test drove a Toyota Rav4, Honda CRV and  Nissan Rogue again, we attempted to test drive a Ford edge. We went to the Guelph Auto Mall again for the most part since it just so covenant having all the dealerships side by side.
 
We started first with the Toyota Rav4, which both Heather and I liked generally speaking. It has a lot of pickup and go and inside is nicely laid out and seems to be functional. There are lots of options for the RAV4 ranging from all wheel drive to front wheel to 4 cylinders and 6 cylinder engines. However, it is one of the more expensive trucks that I  am looking at, which is compounded by the fact Toyota’s financing rates are pretty high as well. I like the truck and I am considering it still, it is also one of the more reliable SUV’s on the market right now. But the financing rates are little much in my opinion but the fact the Toyota is still selling a lot of RAV4’s even with these rate does say a lot of about the quality of them. My main complaint about the RAV4 is the body shape is pretty boxy, especially when you compare it to the Nissan Rogue. But this is true for most of Toyota’s cars they make very reliable cards and trucks but they are not very flashy.

After leaving Toyota we went to Wayne Pitman Ford to look at the Ford Edge. We stood around the show room for about five minutes before someone finally came over and asked if they could help us, he clearly was not interested in showing us anything. Finally he found the keys to show us an edge, but he spent the entire bashing other manufactures he did not attempt to sell the edge to us. He also told us to book a test drive if we want to drive one. I was not all the interested in the Ford Edge since it is a larger truck then what I want but this put the nail in the coffin for this truck. I am sorry when I show up to look at truck tell me about the truck do not bash other manufacturers.

Also do not tell me to book a test drive if I want to take one out, does he seriously think I will be back? I can see why Ford is in so much trouble, I was interested in looking at their truck now I am not at all.

After this failed attempt to look at Ford Edge at Wayne Pitman ford in Guelph we went to the Honda Dealership in Guelph to look at a CRV. Not sure what it was with Heather and I and bad sales people but the guy at Honda was not much better than the guy at Ford. But at least this guy offered to take us for a test drive, but I think he said maybe fifty words the entire time. He did not sell the truck at all or really ask any questions of us. By the comparison the sale person at Toyota asked a lot of question and was interested in wining our business
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Anyway back to the Honda CRV, both Heather and I did somewhat like the CRV. It does drive very nicely and it seems to have lot of guts. I am not a fan of the styling of the truck it is extremely boxy much like the Toyota RAV4. But it does get good gas mileage and it has won a lot of awards. A couple of things that I really hated about the CRV is that the leather in the truck is horrible, it is very loose fitting and is grey. This is Honda’s leather in general it does not tight so I can see it catching dirt and crumbs. My sister had a Honda Pilot and the leather just was not very nice. The other thing that I do not like is dash board is very edgy it not smooth. I am talking the area on top of the dash board where the windshield fits, there are lots of little crevice’s and valleys that will get full of dust.

After leaving Honda I thought it would be a good idea to drive a Nissan Rogue again then I would have driven the three trucks that I am considering back to back. However, we went the dealership in Kitchener rather than Guelph. This is because the Guelph dealership has annoyed me, I contact the person Heather and I talked to last weekend via email to discuss price. I asked him for a price on a Nissan Rogue AWD SL with Leather Premium and Tech package basically a fully loaded Rogue. The price he came back with floored me, it was $500 above MSRP, I mean give me a break. I replied back with why is the price above MSRP he said oh we can figure it out when I came in to discuss price. Ok he just gave a me price above list does he really think I will come in to discuss price with him? To make matters worse the guy has put me some Nissan Spam list! Guelph Nissan has a reputation for being pretty slimy, a lot of people have told me not to deal with them. I can now see why…

Anyway we went to the Kitchener dealership and took out a Rogue again and it is still my favorite car of everything that I drove. The package that Nissan has does annoy me, if I want leather I need to get the AWD version. If I want a blue tooth setup I have to get the AWD and leather package. They should give a Leather option for the Front Wheel Drive trucks and also the blue tooth package or technology package should be available not matter what. I also don’t like the fact that you pretty much forced to get a 6 CD changer and you also get a MP3 hook up. Who still wants a 6 CD changer anymore let along if you have an MP3 player?

Right now the Toyota RAV4 and Nissan Rogue are my top picks for my next vehicle. My one concern with the Rogue is that it is first generation vehicle so they may not have worked out all of kinks and well I did not have a lot of luck with my 2004 Mazda 3 GT that was also a first generation car.