How do you choose your cars?

[Hannah Gregory]

Is it the Engine?
Not really, a good car will have a good engine.

Aesthetic of the design?
Top of the list!

Fuel Economy?
What? Who cares?

Safety?
Not at all.

Driving experience?
Number 3 on the list.

Practicality?
You must be joking!

Pricing?
Yes, unfortunely.

Versatility?
Same as practicality that, so not really a consideration.

Pedigree/Badge ?
Number 2 on the list!

Soul?
I think if you get the right, aesthetics, driving experience and pedigree/badge, then soul is guaranteed.

[GM_IV]

I've now gotten the opportunity to drive several cars(mostly regular cars) and for me only a few things can help me choose my car.

Driving experience, basically how the car feels to drive including the handling, comfort, etc. I've driven some pretty vague cars like the Elantra, Corolla, Lucerne(the Allure is strangely a lot better) which I personally couldn't stand to own. Cars like the Mazda3 I wouldn't mind actually driving daily. I usually don't have much issues with interior comfort since I'm small, unless the interior designer is an idiot like the ones at Chrysler. Engines...I've been pleasantly surprised with the power of some of these newer 4 cylinder cars they're so much faster than they used to be. Only a few 4 cylinders are bad...like the Caliber's which sounds like a cow and is not powerful.

Price, this is rather key since if I cannot afford the car then its kind of pointless. Yet I consider this below driving experience only because I already have a fantastic, reliable, daily driver to drive. If I cannot afford it just yet, I can wait unless its too expensive which I rather forget it.

Size, I really do not like driving a car thats too big. I've driven SUVs like the Tahoe/Yukon and in some older parking lots that were not designed for them, they're just way too massive. I'm also small so its hard for me to drive them along with trying to get in them.

Looks, to a degree. I'm convinced that I likely cannot drive a beautiful car only because I believe the cops here are biased. Very few times I've seen them pull a 80s boxy Japanese car while I've seen quite a few upscale/aggressive looking cars pulled over...in fact today I saw a Porsche 911 get caught. Most of the Ferraris, Corvettes, Supras, Lambos, etc. drive pretty slowly. I don't want to drive something that makes me look silly ie. PT Cruiser/HHR so looks do play a part.

Creature comforts like A/C, power windows, power locks(manual locks suck for 4 doors), etc. I'm just too used to a car that had all of this stuff standard so not having them to me seems like a downgrade. The only thing I never used is cruise control.

What wheel drive I want depends on the sort of car I'm getting. Anything small, FWD is probably the better option like the Yaris, Fit, Mazda3 though if AWD was available I'd take that. Anything bigger I would not accept FWD, the Impala's torque steer gave me too much of a scare.

No Minivans, I hate them all.

Things like fuel economy, badge, versatility etc. are not my primary concerns but I'd gladly accept them if they were better for instance. Having a great car that just happens to be frugal is nothing to be upset about rather a bonus.

[Cold Fussion]

I can't believe no one here said sound?! My dad just bought a manual r32 over the new fg xr6 because a) Its far better built 2) The interior is far simpler to operate and 3) The r32 sounds very nice when you rev it which instantly makes it more fun to drive then the ford.

[notsteven]

The R36 decision process was a little unusual, so I'll detail it here...

a) I want to sell my Commodore before it hits 100 000km. It's at 68000 now and I haven't driven it for months.
b) I want something smaller than my Commodore wagon, but I need a wagon.
c) I want something quick - I've been driving a Golf GTI for the past year. It has to be good looking and sound good, too.
d) Dad has an Audi Q7. I want something smaller than that, but bigger than the GTI. We can borrow each others cars when we want, so I don't need anything tiny or enormous.
e) I need to be able to carry my golf clubs, camping gear, cases of wine, three friends in comfort, and wanted something that was more fuel efficient than my Commodore.

Given those criteria and the money I had to spend, I was looking at year-or-two year old Subaru Libertys if I disregarded the fuel efficiency criteria and similar aged diesel Passats if I ignored the quick criteria.

I found out that my parents were also looking for a new car - they'd keep the GTI and the Q7 but Mum refuses to drive the Q7 and needs something larger than the GTI sometimes - she'd just steal my Commodore, but didn't really like it. I suggested we went halves in something else. My budget had just doubled, and my criteria had changed.

The previous criteria were in effect, but as I was sharing the car with my parents, we needed this:

f) European. Mum and Dad get confused when they drive my car 'cause the indicator/wiper stalks are different to theirs.
g) A tailgate that can open and close itself.
h) Better quality interior than the Subaru.
i) Under $80 000, and new.

This basically left us looking at VW and Audi. I had a quick look at Subaru anyway, but the boot area is very small and not really suitable.

Looking at the Audi range, the only thing that was really suitable in terms of size and drivetrain was the A6 All Road with the three litre turbo diesel, but that's more expensive than the Q7 with the same engine... and we have one of those already! This led me to look at the Passat.

Given the new budget, I looked at the 3.2 V6. It was good - quick, comfortable, spacious, and well made. Unfortunately, there were a few things we didn't like. The standard seats were horrible - no lateral support, and slippery leather. Dad made that mistake in the Q7 and I wasn't going to do it on my car. Though the car had the DSG box, it didn't have gear shift paddles - I use them all the time in the GTI, and Mum does too.

I asked the dealer about the R36 and although she didn't know much, she had some preliminary pricing and specs. It was only a few thousand dollars more than the 3.2 specced how we wanted, came with most of what we wanted on the 3.2 as standard, and fixed the seat and paddle problem and a few other little things that we could have put up with.

I placed the order back in January and I should be picking it up in a week or two. We've ended up with a Biscay Blue R36 wagon with RNS510 sat nav, reversing camera, and automatic tailgate. I wanted to change the order to include Dynaudio but by the time I made my mind up the car was already in production and it was too late. Bi-xenons are standard, with some crazy cornering light business.

With those options it came in just under budget at around $78000 including all taxes and so on, and while we don't think it will be as fuel efficient as we'd like... it meets all the other criteria, and there wasn't really anything else worth even thinking about.

[thevictor390]

Well, considering that my current car (over there <---) is my first, haven't had too much experience.


My criteria:
- had to be a two-door, entirely for visual reasons, and the fact that the back seats will never be used by me.
- had to have four seats so I could get my brother and sister from school, preferably five so the whole family could fit.
- had to not be classified as a sports car for insurance reasons

After that, just looked at everything in that category in the sub-$3000 range, and once I got a general idea of the condition and mileage I could expect in that range found my car for $3450. More than I wanted to pay but with 54000 miles (61000 now) it could last me a long time, and the interior is (or was, I'm a bit messy) quite literally in perfect condition. The most broken thing about this car is the cup holder cover that comes off when you open it.

Unfortunately whoever had bought the car originally made a significant effort not to choose any options, so I've got roll-up windows and have to reach over to unlock the passenger door... I'm just glad A/C was standard. But I guess that means less stuff to break down the road.

Basically price and condition were the main factors, looks to an extent but within reason, and I have low practicality needs. Turns out turning radius is worse than both a Hummer H2 and a Chevy Suburban (I've tested), 4-Cyl. manages to be underpowered while still getting V6 mileage (20-25 mpg American), and air noise on the highway is atrocious due to convertible-style doors, but for the price and condition I love it. It looks way better than I imagined my first car would anyway.

I would have been pretty pissed if I bought it brand new in 1996 though.