Vehicle Shopping

Last night Jeff made a date for us to go vehicle shopping. The lease for our Toyota Sienna is up on December 1st so we need to decide on a replacement. Leases have gone in the bucket since the last time we signed a contract; either the companies don't offer them or the interest is so crazy that nobody will take them. It looks like we'll be buying instead of leasing this time.

I like having the opportunity to lease. This is our second leased vehicle. The first was a little silver Mazda that Jeff was to use when he was travelling back and forth to Orillia (it was my favorite vehicle and I still miss it). And we thought when the lease was up we could always change up the vehicle depending on our needs at the time. Next was the van. It has been great travelling back to Thunder Bay in it especially since the dog takes up so much room (and all of Jeff's suitcase - ha!) We've definitely learned once you go big it's hard to go small again.

Now that the choice of whether to lease or buy has pretty much taken care of itself we're trying to agree on the type of vehicle, price and number of years. So far, it hasn't happened.

Today we looked at and test drove a Ford Escape, GM Montana and the Mazda GT. We didn't really care for the Escape but it's a reasonable price for a basic utility vehicle. The Montana has an OK price but the seats behind the driver don't come out with ease, there's some vibration on the highway and Jeff kept hitting his elbow on the console between the two seats. The Mazda GT is like a petite van. I totally loved it. Jeff wouldn't even consider it because there wasn't a proper area for the dog. It was a tiring day which we both ended with headaches. The search will continue into next week.