When an Auto Writer Buys a Car: Part II

Yesterday, I told you how my wife and I came up with our list of potential replacements for our 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Out of that list, I had a very good idea what my top choice would be. I had enjoyed the Mazda CX-7 when I first tested it, and thought it was going to be an easy sell to my wife. My next step was to take her for a test drive and get some price quotes online.

There was only one model we hadn’t really tested thoroughly — yes, as an automotive journalist you do test cars for yourself as well as for a story — and that was the Subaru Outback.

I hopped onto Cars.com and sent out quote requests on both the Mazda and the Subaru using my personal email address, so it never showed up with @cars.com after it. At no point in my car-shopping process did I tell a salesman where I worked.

I was surprised at how quickly the emails came pouring in.

I was even more surprised at the prices I was being quoted on the CX-7. I was looking for a black, all-wheel-drive Sport model, which is the base trim level. The quotes coming in were for the top-of-the-line Grand Touring, fully loaded except for navigation, for the same price as the MSRP on the Sport — around $26,000. Could this be going any better for me? The car I wanted was close at hand, and more than one dealer had the right color and a great price.

A Subaru dealer also contacted me from a nearby suburb, and I scheduled a test drive for a Saturday morning so my wife could drive the Outback. There was a Mazda dealer nearby, too, so I figured we’d run in there after driving the Outback and my wife would be blown away by her experience in the CX-7.

We arrived at the Subaru dealership and were quickly greeted by the salesman who had called me to schedule the test drive. He was young and friendly and not very much like the stereotypical car salesman; that means we liked the guy. We test drove 2007 Outbacks with both the six-cylinder and four-cylinder engines. Courtney didn’t really notice a difference in our test drives, and if she didn’t care I didn’t think the more-than $5,000 price difference was worth it. We left with a very positive reaction from Courtney on the car, while I was glad we didn’t end up with a slimy salesman.

Next up was the Mazda dealer. We walked in, waited for a few minutes before a salesman showed up — there was only one — and said we wanted to test drive a CX-7. He asked for my wife’s driver’s license to copy, handed it back with a key and let us loose. Courtney reacted negatively to the seating position right away. There was too much dashboard ahead of her, and the cabin seemed too cavernous. I tried to tell her she was imagining it, but her complaints were legit even if I disagreed. Even worse was that the CX-7’s suspension took the bumpy streets we were on with extra feedback. Our Chicago commute wouldn’t be any less bumpy, and to me this was a real-world problem. I quickly saw the idea of my dream car evaporate right before my eyes.

I thought by the end of the day we’d have our car figured out — no more shopping, no more online quotes. I was wrong. We had to go back to the drawing board. I wasn’t totally sold on the Outback, and I’m not the type of person to settle. Now, the Hyundai Santa Fe, Honda CR-V and Mitsubishi Outlander were back on our shopping list, and I had to go back through the quotes and get back into test-drive mode for three more cars.

When an Auto Writer Buys a Car: Part I
When an Auto Writer Buys a Car: Part III
When an Auto Writer Buys a Car: Part IV