The Quest For a New Car

This year, I am one of the few who will be getting a new car. My Dodge Caliber SE (automatic (AT) ) lease is up and I will be getting a new car in the next 30 days. Considering the economic situation, should I buy or should I lease again? For some brands, I’m only willing to lease, for others, I’m willing to either lease or buy and some just buy as there are no lease options. There are bound to be great deal out there and most of the time there are depending, as usual, which dealership and also which manufacturer you deal with.

Although I had started looking occasionally about a year ago, my real quest began during the holidays. Since I will either sign a 4 or 5 years agreement, I am doing my selections based on the fact that we are planning a family very soon.

Kia Rondo

My first stop was at Kia. Our neighbour had purchased a Rondo a year ago and only had good things to say about it.

Indeed the car has a lot of space  (you can add as an option a third row of seats) and the drive is pretty smooth. The EX version is very loaded in options for the price you pay and you have a 5 year bumper to bumper warranty in Canada, which is one of the best warranties from an auto manufacturer. If I decide to get a Rondo, the only thing I would change would be to go from a V4 to a V6 engine. I felt that the Rondo sometimes was feeling its weight under the V4. It’s only a few dollars more monthly (literally) and gas consumption goes only 0.5liters more per 100km and actually less on highway.

Kia is very aggressive and wants to sell, which pretty much goes with why it was one of the very few automakers that was in the green in February. At the time I still had my car for 4 more months so whatever the could pitch was too soon for me as I have been happy with my Caliber and was in no rush to make a deal. However, after doing a lot of online research on this car, my perspective of Kia for some of the vehicles changed in a positive way.

The Montreal Auto Show came and went. I realized that I would need to do more test drives than I thought as I was interested in several models.

Toyota Matrix 2009

Next was Toyota; not the best place to negotiate as they are confident in their products and their pricing structure. Still, the current low interest rate is interesting. I tried the Matrix 2009 (base model with a convenience package with AT). Again lots of space but not as much as the Rondo; they are after all two different type of car category where my Caliber is in the same category as the Matrix while the Rondo is more in the category of mini-van like the Mazda5 and  the Dodge Journey. Still it is a very cool car with great handling. However, something is annoying me about it though I still haven’t figure out what it is. Being 6’1 it could be my leg room. I might have to try it again. My wife loves it though and could buy this model, later this year, when her own lease ends. 

On the same day we went to Nissan. I wanted to check out a base Sentra ’09 (AT with a convenience package). My wife wanted to check out the Versa Sedan 2009 that, although it was a small car, had a huge trunk. The Nissan folks were great with clear, simple and honest answers (I had done my research and asked a few questions playing stupid).

Nissan Sentra 2009

They first set us up with the Sentra and off we went. I’ve been hearing some rants about engine performance on this car. I don’t know if people were expecting a Porshe but I think it does quite well with its CVT drive. It had a lot of space and the price is decent. However, Nissan is also known to sometimes be a bit over price for what they offer. Nevertheless, long-term, Nissans tend to last for a long time. My wife had a 1995 Sentra and had it for 10 years.

The Versa Sedan on the other hand, in my opinion, is a total disaster. On paper, you would think that it might suite your needs….watch out! The first thing you notice on this car is that there are no height ajustments on the car although cars in similar categories such as the Chevy Aveo offers it. Then on the road I could feel its 1.8L engine straining when accelarating. Even worse when it was on the highway, at 100Km/h the engine was extremely noisy. It was trying to maintain that speed. Forget about an arm rest in the center too (little things like that can sometimes make a difference). My knees were also over the door armrest level. I couldn’t see myself doing a road trip with this one. Hence it was definitely scratched from both our list.

Dodge Journey 2009

Finally I went to Dodge dealership near my house. My original dealership is almost an hour drive away so I figured I could test drive and start getting some quotes. I am still considering a Caliber SXT. I wanted to try a Dodge Journey as well as a Jeep Patriot North Edition. Although I love the space that you get for the price of the Journey SE Plus – the truth is…it’s a huge vehicle that runs on a 4 cylindre engine. You can opt for a V6 but it’s pricey and gas will be expensive to fill up this 78L vehicle. We actually had to do an emergency maneuvre during our test drive and the Journey had a hard time accelerating because of its weight. Another scratch off the list. To bad, everything else was great about it.

We then tried a Jeep Patriot. The Patriot is based on the Caliber and this year they changed the inside to make it look more like a Jeep brand and NOT a Caliber. It really does feel like a Jeep product. It’s big inside considering its on the Caliber platform with decent storage room. The ride is generally smooth however the CVT drive is a bit loud when accelerating. However once you reach the speed you want to go at, its pretty quiet. I don’t really see this as a make or break deal as my Caliber does this sometimes as well.

Jeep Patriot 2009

With our test drives done for Dodge and Jeep we sat down to get quotes. Again my research had been made so I knew what the numbers should be as a base to start negotiating on a price. Well, let me tell you that I jumped off my seat when I found out that Dodge.ca and Jeep.ca’s site does not match at all what this dealership was suggesting. We received quotes that were 30% more than was advertised on the official website. As usual, the site posts MSRP and

Dodge Caliber 2009

dealers can sell for less if they choose. In this case it was a lot more. Who the heck are they kidding? I’ve never heard so much BS as to why in my life. I refrain from stating the dealership name and location at this point because, in a few days, I will be going to the one I originally got my car from to see if this is consistent or a sour grape in the whole. Nevertheless, I was not impressed especially considering that I am a returning client and that it is a company that is struggling to sell cars.

Besides this issue, I can say that my quest for a new car is pleasant. I was fortunate to get sellers that were not putting pressure – perhaps due to the research I had made before and that I could not be fooled…who knows. Up to now, I have to say that Nissan impressed us overall for their services and help to guide us through a potential Nissan purchase.

I have yet to make my mind as I still have a few vehicles that I am considering and need a few more quotes. However, things are starting to be clearer and I think after my meeting with my original dealership, the fog that is still left should be lifted.

Stay tuned…

Does Western Canada (English Canada) have a Distinct Culture like in Quebec?

Does Western Canada (English Canada) have a Distinct Culture like in Quebec? It has been an ongoing debate for years. With today’s realities and the constant frictions between Quebec, and the rest of the country, it is something that often stirs up passions.

How deep does the cultural difference go? If fact the question is:  Do you believe that Western Canada has a culture that everyone can identify to? If so what is it? How do you, personally, identify to it and how do you feel when some say that there is no culture outside of Quebec.

For people living in Quebec, do you think the rest of the country has a distinct culture they can call their own? If so what is it and why do you believe this? What identifies you as a Quebecois and what identifies you as a Canadian?  Do you consider Canadian or a Quebecois first? Why?

I would very much like to hear what you have to say on the matter  Let us be courtious and  unbiased  regardless of your political views when leaving your opinion.

Is it Time for Both US & Canadian Goverments to Pull the Plug on GM?

With a loss of almost 10 billion dollars last quarter and a total lost over more than 30 billion dollars in 2008, GM is now requesting for almost 30 billion dollars in bail out – 2 billion needed immediately to maintain cashflow – is it time for both governments to say ”No, that’s enough” and let them die. If you have comments please speak your mind!

Harper’s 48 000 000$ Cultural Cut: Why I Support It!

About two months ago, Stephen Harper announced a cut of 48 million dollars in Canada’s Cultural budget. This means that it would now be harder for artists of all forms to get funding in order to do what they do and expose their art in the country around the world.

With no surprise, all the culture industry cried fowl of this decision. As usual they say that they are already underfunded and that this will cause jobs and will cause Canadian artists to be less recognized internationally. Obviously, people in Quebec are louder from the others since its the cultural hotspot in Canada. As a bonus, opposing political parties are using this as bait to get votes, promessing the reinstatement of the 48 millions.

The Conservatives couldn’t be more right in the decision they made.  It’s time to prioritize on real issues and not prioritize on the guys drawing a triangle and calling it art. I’m tired of seeing these so-called artists, especially in Quebec (I live there by the way), rant about not getting any funding, not being able to make enough money to reach the end of the month. Hey! Perhaps it’s because your work is simply bad, no one is interested by it and you are not such an artist after all. I watch the cultural segment of the news every evening and it amazes me at some of the stuff I sometimes see. A women who thinks she can sing but gives me a head ache; a guy on a stage behind some light curtain doing some painting with his hands that my 3 year old nephew could do a lot better; a play no one in the real world cares about. Why the hell do we fund these people?

I think the best comes from organization from like the Montreal Jazz Festival (which I love). Last summer was, apparently, the best year in it’s existence financially, the Festival was only at negative 2 000 000$. You read right…! Can one explain to me that after all these years a festival that literally brings thousands of people to Montreal can still lose money? To me that is simply bad finances. It doesn’t matter how much money it brings to the city, in the end all the financing already done from the government, plus it’s negative income makes you and I pay for something that we shouldn’t pay for at all.

André Arthur, independent delegate in Levis said it best when he said that it’s time to prioritize and stop paying your taxes to fuel the jets of some artists that don’t need it.

The whole uprising of the artists in Quebec is not surprising though as they are almost all being funded by the government and is used to living in a Jetset environment even though they do not deserve to have it. That, my friends, is the truth. A Quebec movie can’t even make its costs here. Why is that? Because 98% of them are simply bad films. So bad in fact that although the stay, deliberately, in the theaters for a long time, they can’t even make 1 million dollars.

Overall, the principal reason you have the media in Quebec in such a frenzied culturate cut coverage is this: There is one corporation that has a lot to lose from this and that is Quebecor. They own newspapers, TV stations and will not hesitate to make their reporters writet on this because Quebecor, has….music labels of artists here. They get funding themselves (ever heard of Star Academie ( Quebec’s version of American/Canadian Idol) from the government. So they keep pressing the news on this both in print, online and broadcast. They have a lot to lose on this.

People like Gilles Ducceppe and Stephane Dion push the cultural cuts issue as it seems to be the only issue on their minds. For gods sake it’s 48 million dollars on billions and billions of dollars budget.

To them I say this and challenge them:

Go to a hospital and enter a room that has a cancer patient. Make a press conference saying that 48 million dollars in culture is important. I doubt the people in that hospital or in any hospital in the country is going to care…