About five or six years ago, I took a trip to California with Nemesis in her Hyundai Accent. And after learning a little more about Hyundai Accents and their incredible warranty, I decided that I would like to own one. I mean, the car fits me perfectly. It's small, it has great mileage, and it does have that incredible warranty. And so I started to dream about owning a Hyundai Accent.
I'd like to just pause to point out what a realistic dream this was. I wasn't dreaming about owning a Hummer or a Lamborghini or an El Camino. I was dreaming of owning a Hyundai Accent, one of the least expensive entry-level cars in existence.
I'm graduating in a month and I've decided it's time for me to own a car. I'll need a car to get around to job interviews and I'll need a car when my parents come to SLC to visit for two weeks and I'm the only child in Provo (so I'll have to commute to SLC to see them). And I'll need a car when my bus pass runs out. I set a cap of $5000 and took the bus to a car dealership yesterday morning.
And I found a cute little baby blue Accent. It was a 2004 with only 27,000 miles. And it had no price sticker. So when the dealer came to talk to me about it, I told him that I was thinking of spending about $5000 but I would be very interested in learning a little more about the 2004 Accent for sale. We took it for a test drive. And I knew that he wasn't really talking about price because he wanted to get me hooked before I actually committed to anything. But after a test drive, he and his boss sat me down and started saying stuff like "Six or seven thousand dollars instead of eleven thousand if you buy it today." I kept insisting that I have El Senor's approval before I made any decision about the car, and they offered to let me have the car for the day, go to work, take my test on campus, and drive to SLC to show the car to El Senor. The funny thing is that the better they made the offer, the more nervous I got.
But I took the car and started thinking that it was The One. I mean, come on. It was baby blue for heavens' sakes! I really fell in love. And while I took the day to think about it and spent a lot of time with El Senor on Google Talk discussing my options, Captain Fabuloso and Captain Mom (I need to change Peaches Mom's name to Captain Mom on my side bar) let me know that they were ready to sell me Clicky for substantially less than $6,000.
Clicky is Captain Fabuloso's '93 Honda Accord that used to smell like laundry detergent. He's called Clicky because for who knows how long, the turn signal was broken in the car and it made a non-stop clicking noise (seriously, I think that Captain Fabuloso waited over a year to get that thing fixed). Although Clicky is not as flashy and new as the little Accent, it's a reliable car and is financially the wiser choice. So I will soon have a car of my own. Sometimes it's okay to settle. And in the meantime, I can plan to purchase one of those incredibly cheap entry-level vehicles in a few years...
10 comments:
In general, I would tell you 'clicky' would be the much better choice. I was a mechanic for ten years before my current job and hondas beat hyundais any day. I speak in generalities because I haven't either driven clicky OR the baby blue financial-accident-waiting-to-happen, but I stand by my statement. Honda is a quality product. Period...
I have to agree with stupidramblings. Hyundais have come a long way in the last several years, so a 2004 would probably be a good choice, but the Honda is still probably a better choice. And substantially less than $5,000 ain't bad, either.
Congratulations on your purchase, and welcome to the wonderful world of automobile ownership.
My family had a 2000 Hyundai Accent, and it ran beautifully, didn't have any problems... until it got totalled. It was a sad day.
I don't know SR or SB... Do you really think that a 1993 Honda is going to be a better car than a 2004 Hyundai that still has three years of warranty on it? I'm going to have to maintain that I made a better financial choice because the repairs over the next few years on the Honda will probably not be as much as I would have paid for the Hyundai, but I think that Hyundai makes a pretty good car these days, and I'm hesitant to assert that a ten-year-older Honda is still a sounder choice than a almost-new Hyundai...
I had a 1992 Honda Accord EX, a year older than yours and I drove it into the ground. The only problem with getting an older Honda is that you have to really be on top of things to keep it maintained, otherwise all kinds of crap can go wrong. But that's truth with any car.
My suggestion is to take the 5 G's and not get a Hyundai, but a Honda Civic. I have a friend who's parents bought to Hyundai Accents for their kids, and those cars didn't take to well to the beatings those kids gave them.
Well, when you put it that way, Cicada, I'm not so sure. I know that Hyundais used to be just about the worst cars you could buy in the U.S.
But I also know that they've made some amazing strides in quality in recent years, so I'm really not sure how a new Hyundai (with three years of warranty, no less) compares to an old Honda.
However, I'd be a little concerned if they dropped the price from $11,000 to $6000 that quickly. Was there something wrong with the car that you didn't know?
The new hyundais are great. I dispute not their quality. I maintain the Honda is a better choice with better quality--even ten years old. Don't forget I used to work on them all day every day for ten years.
And to SB's point, why were the sales guys so eager to sell, sell, sell? They were probably having trouble with that car and were probably trying to mitigate their (potential) losses.
As a '94 Accord owner, I would go so far as to say the '93 is one of the best ones out there. Since it's the last year for that style, it has been perfected.
Wow---you guys are the best at making me feel confident I made the better choice! Thanks! And SR and SB, I agree. I was getting more and more nervous the better they were making the deal. It seemed too good to be true and I was uncomfortable with how low they were willing to drop the price.
Hooray for Clicky!
Although it's sad when even realism can't come true, I must confess that I have a soft spot in my heart for Hondas, a soft spot that in fact pretty well covers all of the tissue-space designated for cars at all. There's a little space left over for my Prius, but the rest is all Honda.
Post a Comment