A week ago I wrote about the decision my wife and I had to make regarding a new car to replace my 2012 Chevrolet Malibu. It had been a great car since I bought
it new three years ago but it had become impractical as of late with the
arrival of our son. So, once again, we began looking for a new car with the
criteria being an all-wheel drive SUV priced under $25,000 with reasonable insurance
rates, leg/head room (front and back), with a few other basics found in most
cars these days. Additionally, we were hoping to find something with Bluetooth,
remote start, cruise control, a full sized spare tire, roof rack, regular
outlet, and side molding. This
initial wish list led us to the Chevrolet Equinox, Jeep Compass, and Jeep
Patriot.
I
was able to drive all the cars a couple of times and spent some time at a
couple of dealerships with my wife last weekend. Having driven them all I was
leaning slightly more toward the Jeep models but didn’t have a really strong
feeling either way. Thankfully, my wife was able to help me narrow down the
options and almost immediately eliminated the Equinox upon inspection. She had
her reasons and I wasn’t going to argue with them. So that left us with the two
Jeep models.
The
only real difference between the two is the body style. All the other features
match up nearly identically with the only difference that I could see being
that the Compass had a rear view camera. Being that this was not one of the
features I was focusing on it didn’t really help with my decision. By the end
of the long day we were able to sit down and make an initial decision on what
was available (ordering was not possible as manufacturers have already switched
over to 2016 production). We left the dealer on Saturday having put down a $500
deposit on a Jeep Patriot High Altitude Edition.
Throughout
the week I spent some time going back and forth with the dealership, securing
financing through USAA, and looking around to make sure I got the best price
with the options that I wanted on the car. It never hurts to double check. As
the end of the week neared I had finalized everything and was eager to pick up
the car and dig through the mountain of paperwork. By Friday morning I was able
to drive to work in my new 2015 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk.
That’s
right, over the course of the week I had looked around and compared the pricing
of a few models. I also had the dealer check the stock on hand to see what was
available. I had previously ruled out the Cherokee (especially the Trailhawk)
because of the higher base price but looking at what needed and didn’t need to
be added, the difference was much smaller than initially thought. It was
actually a very similar situation to when I got the Malibu.
In
the end, when we originally put the deposit down, I had to make a few
compromises with the Patriot so when I came across the Trailhawk with nearly
everything on it that we were looking for (everything else can be
purchased/added later at a nominal cost) I had to talk to my wife about the
slight increase in price (still staying close to our budget). Once she saw how
much more we could get for our money we agreed to make the switch. Driving
around today, I know that we made the right decision.
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