A Big Week: Car Doings Part 2

Besides selling my old car, I also bought a new car.  Like most big decisions, this one needed to marinate for at least a year.  Last summer I vaguely thought about getting a new car, but then I paid almost $1000 to fix Herman's brakes, so I decided to keep him another year.

This summer I started getting serious.  I test drove a whole bunch of cars.  Chevy Equinox, Toyota Rav4, Hyundai Tucson, Subaru Outback, Subaru Crosstrek, Subaru Forester, Honda Civic Hatchback, Honda HRV, Honda CRV, etc.  I think you get the idea.  A decision matrix was involved.  It looked like this:

Key learnings were that a checklist of features you're interested in helps prevent surprises that features are missing.  It also helps to make sure you check to ensure all the features are present when you test drive.  The other key learning is that a test drive can make a big difference on your opinion of a car.  It can make a car be quickly struck from the list (not enough pep, seat uncomfortable) or move it quite close to the top of the list (fun to drive).  The funnest car to drive of all the ones I drove was the Honda Civic Hatchback and was very tempting.  But......"fun to drive" isn't everything, and it didn't quite overcome not having a factory roof rack option.  And, it didn't overcome a smaller cargo area compared to my existing car.

What I decided to do was to be a loyal customer and stick with the Mazda family.  I bought a Mazda CX-5.  So far I like it and it's working out.  Not too many surprises other than the salesman telling me AFTER I wrote the check that the dealer couldn't get a roof rack for almost two months. WHAT?!?!  I almost returned the car right then.  It's prime kayaking season, so a roof rack is essential.  He suggested looking into aftermarket options.  So I did that a little bit, but the I also checked Amazon and YouTube.  The installation video looked relatively uncomplicated, and Amazon could sell me the parts.  So I had the parts ordered and installed in less than a week!

Here's the car as I bought it - before the minor operation:

 And here it is post operation.

Winking in the sun

The other side.

The roof rack is right at the maximum height where I don't need a stool to put the kayak in the rack.  But maybe I'll get a small stool just to make it a little easier.  I'll see what stores have that might be convenient. 

I was assuming the car was male because my previous two cars have been male.  But my one friend thought it was female.  What do you think?  Male or female?  Like usual, name suggestions are welcome.  When I looked at the previous suggestions, a few favorites have been put on the list as a starting point:

1. Hamish
2. Rex
3. Floyd
4. Clyde