We finally bought a car! My partner had a small domestic car years ago, but for me this is a first. I am so excited! I've driven a lot--commercial vehicles, both taxis and 18-wheelers, as well as various rentals for personal needs over the years--but I have never before owned a car (since many readers may be puzzled by a thirty-something man buying his first ever car, I shall write about that in a future post).
I did a lot of car researching and searching over the last few weeks--I read consumer reports, car reviews (both professional and personal), compared charts, with emphasis on reliability, fuel mileage, depreciation and safety ratings, and test drove a number of different small cars.
Over the past couple of years we seriously entertained buying a Daimler-Chrysler smart car. Not only is it very cute, but it is also small and fuel-efficient (I am strongly opposed to large vehicles, unless their size is necessitated by line of work), and has good crash safety ratings. We wanted a car that would not unduly enlarge our ecological footprint. But in the end we decided against it--the smart is so new to the Canadian market that there are hardly any used cars for sale (with freight, PDI, and taxes, the price tag was too high), and, again because it is so new, reliability is hard to judge. It also does not seem as solid a vehicle as other, only sightly larger, cars.
So we turned to Hyundai, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. After comparing their lineup of small cars and test driving a few of them--Hyundai Accent, Honda Civic (both hatchback and sedan), Nissan Sentra, Toyota Corolla, Camry and Echo,
we decided on the Echo. Would have liked the Yaris, but again, new is too expensive. We leaned first towards the Echo hatchback (I realise now it was mainly the cute factor), but after driving both, agreed that the sedan not only handled better, but also has better storage space (except perhaps with the rear seats down).
So we jumped through all the financing hoops and bought the 2005 Toyota Echo sedan. Here we are at the dealership, just before driving away with our new (well, new to us) car. Although new enough at just over a year, we did not have to pay freight and PDI on top of all the taxes--that's the benefit of buying used. It had just over 50000 km on it and still had remaining factory warranty. We had it rust-proofed and extended the warranty.
The interior is surprisingly spacious for such a small car. I never liked the feeling of having to
crawl into a small car, having hardly any room to move my arms or legs around, or to shift my position, and feeling like my butt was just barely missing the asphalt. This car is easy to get into and out of, leaves plenty of arm, leg, and head room, and allows for excellent visibility. Much like the smart, the Echo feels much larger on the inside than exterior appearances would have you believe. I have not yet driven for more than an hour at a stretch, but with the exception of its lack of cruise control, I look forward to a longer road trip.
I drove it home on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2006 and have driven it to work now for almost a week. It handles very nicely, both in stop-and-go city traffic, and at highway speeds. It has a short turning radius and corners very nicely. And with its small size it's easy to find parking downtown or at the mall.
I'll leave this post with a couple more pictures of my new baby. In a few weeks, once I have some more mileage on it, including more highway driving, and I've used up my tank of gas and have a better idea of its true fuel mileage, I will write some more about it. So here are a couple of extra pics--I wanted a silver car, but this
looks quite nice as well!


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