Ever wonder if Edmunds' employees follow their own advice? Carroll Lachnit is Features Editor at Edmunds.com. Here's the story of how she bought her new car. -- Donna
In late December, when it became clear that my 2001 Acura TL might be heading for some expensive transmission issues, I went shopping for a new car. I wanted a coupe, and it didn't take long to narrow down my list: Volvo S60, Volkswagen CC, Audi A5, Mercedes C250, Infiniti G37 and BMW 328i. I toyed with the idea of the Mini Cooper Clubman, but since no one at the Mini dealership could be bothered to call me back regarding a test-drive, I dropped it.
With that short list in hand, here's how my car buying went. From start to finish, it took about a week.
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Categories: Editors Cars
"Well, at least I know what I'm getting into."
This is what you tell yourself right after you hand over the money to buy an old car. Anyone who buys an old Porsche is especially likely to tell himself this, since a Porsche is a smart car, so by definition anyone who buys one must be a smart guy.
This is a complete lie, of course. There's no way to know what you're getting into, especially with a Porsche.
Then again, you can make an attempt at least.
There are guys who like to learn by shopping. They like to learn by standing over a lot of cars and then maybe driving some of them. It works for them, but sometimes it seems that they like the shopping more than the car. It's kind of like buying a package of cookies based on the wrapper.
Personally, I'm a believer in information. (Perhaps this is because I am in the information business.) Anyway I've found that you can never have too much information. This is because there is a strong likelihood that you will become so confused by too much information that you will do nothing, which leads to a great saving of money.
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Categories: Editors Cars
Sometimes it’s better not to know. That’s what you think to yourself when you look down at a pile of repair receipts that come with a car that has 195,500 miles on the odometer.
Jeez, eight owners! How can this car have possibly survived? There should be nothing left of it except for a grease spot.
Dampers gone at 116,570 miles. Front brake calipers gone at 144,429 miles. Clutch gone at 147,831 miles. Brake hoses gone at 152,978 miles. Engine blown up at 164,873 miles. Transmission synchros (1st & 3rd) toasted at 174,448 miles. Light rear body damage at 179,999 miles. Engine ignition bits and fuel system hoses at 181,999 miles. Blown up airbox and dead starter motor at 186,875 miles.
A total nightmare. You can’t help but think that you’ve made an awful, awful mistake. After all, you can buy generic 911SCs all day for $13,000 that have only 120,000 miles on the clock.
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Categories: Editors Cars
Jeannine is Executive Director of Corporate Communications for Edmunds.com.
I guess you could say I'm always sympathetic to an underdog. Pregnant with my second child in the spring of 2008, I was ready to embrace the minivan mama in me, and didn't want to go for one of the old standby models so many of my friends had chosen.
It may be hard to believe now, but at the time, Kia was an underdog brand. I checked around with some trusted Edmunds.com colleagues and determined that I couldn't go wrong with the Sedona. Personally, I felt like Kia was out to prove its brand and that it could be better than going with a company that might be resting on its laurels.
So, we welcomed the Sedona into the family, and, shortly thereafter, my son, and almost immediately, the interior mess of kiddie stuff that seems to come standard with a minivan after the newness wears off.
Yes, I like the fact that it has plenty of room and comfortable captain's chairs up front, and I liked the price tag, but truly the most remarkable thing about the Sedona is that it has some decent kick for a minivan, and doesn't perform like an underdog as far as I can tell. -- Jeannine
If you want to participate in the Readers Rides blog, click here to read the submission guidelines and email your text and photos to submissions@edmunds.com -- Donna
Categories: Editors Cars
(This post was written by Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor)
If you've been a devout follower of the Long Term Test Blog (you are, aren't you?), you might have seen my personal car pop up in photos from time to time. It's a black 2008 Chevrolet Corvette coupe. Its biggest cameo so far was when I did a back-to-back drive with it against our 2009 BMW M3 (two-part series, here and here) to see how well the M3 could hang with a dedicated sports car.
Our new Readers' Rides blog gives us editors the chance to write a bit more about our personal cars. So here's the back story on why I bought a new Corvette after decades of owning sport compact cars.*
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Categories: Editors Cars
This post was written by Michael Jordan, Executive Editor of Edmunds.com.
Right as I look at it, I know it's going to be a bad deal.
It's like the first instant you see her and you know that it's going to be a long, difficult trip to the end of the road, and yet in the next moment you realize that it just doesn't matter because you've already decided that she's worth the trouble so you've signed up.
There just can't be anything more stupid than buying an old car, especially an old Porsche. My friend Stephan Wilkinson, who gave me my first job in the writing business a very long time ago, wrote a book about such a thing, The Gold-Plated Porsche. And he didn't mean in a good way, as he sub-titled his story, "How I Sank a Small Fortune into a Used Car, and Other Misadventures."
Plus -- horror of horrors -- Wilkinson was writing about a 1982 Porsche 911SC, just like the car I'm looking at here in an alley behind some snappy new townhouses a couple blocks from the beach in Oceanside.
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Categories: Editors Cars
