We bought a car this last week. We have been talking about a new car for a while now. The Ford Fusion was just getting more annoying and we have never been super happy with it. It made lots of rattle noises, the repairs weren’t as easy as they are on the 4runner (or as cheap in the long run), it never got the gas mileage I was expecting, and more. It was time.
I did a lot of research as to what to get. “B” wanted something that got better gas mileage since she is now driving into work 4 days a week and it is a pretty good back and forth. She also wanted something “nice” to drive. So a hybrid was most likely in the mix. I started looking at different options and there are a lot of them. One thing was that we weren’t going to get a plug in hybrid or a fully electric because in Idaho there is a fairly decent up charge on the yearly registration for those vehicles due to the fact you don’t pay the gas tax. I totally get it, but it was something I didn’t want to worry about (and I thought the added cost was quite high for the amount of driving we would be doing). Also, I don’t like the idea of having to rely on being able to plug a car in to be able to go somewhere. There is a likely chance we would use this car to drive back to AZ, and I don’t know if there are charging stations between here and there, and I don’t want to wait an hour or more to get a charge before we could head out again. So, a more traditional hybrid was where I was looking.
That still left quite a few options. I knew we wouldn’t do anything American made this time. I just wasn’t happy with the Ford at all. Of course I say that, but the car could have still been manufactured in the USA possibly even if it was from a foreign company.
Well, after much researching I had it down to a few vehicles. “B” was asking about something somewhat luxury, and I had to tell her that the up cost there was more than I felt any of those cars were worth in the long run (so no Lexus, Mercedes, Audi, etc.). But what I did find was something that looked fairly luxury, and most of the online reviews said it was basically a luxury car without the luxury badge. I went to the dealership and looked, and then I had “B” come down and take a look and she liked it, then we brought he kids down and had them see it and feel it and they liked it. The the hard sell started from he dealership. I was getting calls every few days asking if we were ready to buy, and I would say not yet. Then we had a call about one that was everything we wanted and was marked WAY down for some odd reason. “B” was at work so I couldn’t commit. By the time I talked to her she said, put the deposit down and we can go look, and then I called and someone else had JUST bought that car. Oh well, not for us. But the salesman, Tom, felt really bad (he did just lose a sale) and was trying to find us a replacement for that car. Well, the issue was that there were no cars of the same color that were coming in before the end of the year, and we had decided that we wanted a car before the end of the year. So, we had some thinking to do. The next day Tom called and said they had another color of the car we were looking at and that they could do ALMOST the same deal on that car as the one we wanted and that it was the last one of that model car that the dealership would be getting this year that wasn’t already spoken for. “B” and I went down and looked at it. I liked the color and “B” said it was growing on her. So, we decided that we would buy it. They also made a pretty good offer to buy our Ford from us as well so that was nice.
I know you want to know what we bought. Well, we bought a 2025 Toyota Crown Signia in Storm Cloud.
It is like a station wagon, but not. It apparently is the replacement for the Avalon and Venza kind of smashed together (or they had a love child). The comparison to other cars is that most think it is basically the same car as the Lexus RX350, just with a Toyota badge. Hey made by the same company so I am good with that.
So far I like it. I have been getting around 40mpg when I drive it. It is comfy. I like the fit and fell. It has so many bells and whistles:
- Leather interior
- Leather steering wheel
- Heated steering wheel
- Heated and cooled front seats
- Heated back seats
- Whipers on the headlights
- A special heat strip defroster for the front to melt ice fast
- Power seats in the front
- 12.3″ infotianment screen
- Adaptive cruise control, with lane monitoring as well
- Paddle shifter
- 4 driving modes
- The rear hatch can open by waving your foot under the back end on one side
- The rear seats fold down flat and there is nearly 6ft of length (I can sleep in the back of it)
- AWD – that was a key being here in Idaho now with the little bit of snow and ice we will get
- Backup camera and side alerts.
- The engine has a timing CHAIN not belt! This is awesome!
- It was built in Japan! Another big plus to me as well. (Our 4runner was built in Japan and it has had no major issues and has 170000+ miles on it, except for regular wear and tear for an off road vehicle)
I think this is going to be a great choice in a car. It wasn’t cheep, but that is why we save and invest of money. Cars are expensive overall. I haven’t bought a car since the Ford back in January of 2013 so it has been a while, but while doing the research I was a bit surprised by how much cars are going for. And I was also surprised how much good used cars were going for as well.
I am very happy to get rid of the Ford as well. There was some discussion about keeping it for “A” to have when she gets her license (here shortly…), but there were a few reasons to not want that. It was at just over 106000 miles (in almost 12 years not too bad). I was getting worried about a timing belt soon. I think a CV axle may have needed to be replaced, and I read MANY articles about how the engine that was in ours (the 1.6L ecoboost) was a BOMB ready to explode at any moment due to poor design cooling between the cylinders (they fixed in later models but not the one we had). So, glad to be rid of it. We will find something else (smaller as well) for “A” to drive. I am thinking a nice used VW golf. But that is for another day.