What kind of car did you buy?

[Clodfobble]

2012 Toyota Sienna, base model I think
Red, automatic, I don't know how many cylinders
Cash, no extended warranty
Knew we wanted a minivan, and was pretty much settled on the Honda Odyssey before I test drove them.

I chose the Toyota because it had a manual sliding door. Only new minivan in the whole damn city with a manual sliding door. This was my deal-breaker feature, because I hate those damn automatic doors.

I am happy, though I still liked my last minivan better, a 2001 Mazda MPV. The MPV had much better rear vision, and was a little smaller and thus easier to park. I would have bought another MPV in a heartbeat if the fuckers hadn't stopped making them.

I expect this car will last us until at least two of our four kids are out of the house, at which point we will downsize to a non-minivan. Oddly enough, I drove a Ford Escape for a few days as a rental when the minivan was in a fender-bender, and I was very surprised how much I liked it. Of course I'm sure they won't be making it anymore by the time I'm finally ready to get another new car.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

I expect this car will last us until at least two of our four kids are out of the house...

Say what?

[Beest]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

I chose the Toyota because it had a manual sliding door. Only new minivan in the whole damn city with a manual sliding door. This was my deal-breaker feature, because I hate those damn automatic doors.
.

The Dodge Grand caravan we bought has all manual doors, this was certainly a feature for us, and cloth seats not leather.

[Beest]

2012 Honda Fit
Base model
Manual transmission

The main contender was the Ford fiesta, which was nice car, probably nicer for the driver,but the Fit has good rear leg room and the seats fold down to take multiple Hockey bags easily, when doing test drives I took packed hockey bags and sat in the back seats, these were big factors.

The car I was at least interested in was a Subaru Impreza, we had a supplier discount at the time, but there weren't any in stock in a 50 mile radius, nay that were coming in were all sold so I could look at them , not drive, the only option was to put down a deposit, order one, then when it came a couple of months later I could decide whether I liked it. Since our previous car was totalled we would have been renting while we waited to even try one, so not worth it.
There's always a little bit of 'what if' now, especially with the bad weather, but I highly doubt it would have bested the Fit on Hockey bags and passenger utility.