After much deliberation we decided to go looking for a new car to save some money each month on both the car payment and the fuel costs. We found both in a new 2006 Ford Freestyle.
We looked at the Honda Odyssey first. We really liked it. The mid-range model was in our price range. It features a 6-cylinder engine that when it does not need all 6, turns 3 cylinders off to get better gass mileage. Tammy did not care much for the puffy leather seats.
We also looked at the Kia. The Sedona is priced fully loaded similar to the Odyssey. Kia has obviously copied Honda in every way they could. The result was not unlike the ticking motion of a fake Rolex. All the features were there but somehow not quite right. The dealership was really sloppy too. We asked to see a top-of-the-line Sedona. The sales person asked if we wanted to see 2-door or 4-door which is strange since it is a minivan. After seeing the Sedona finally, we realized that it was not right. As we were leaving, the manager stopped us and asked if we would like to see the 2006. We thought we had been looking at a 2006 all along. He makes us wait again while he fetches a 2006. He brings up a stripped base-model. Why would you show someone the base model when they were asking to the top model?
We left that dealership and went to our initial destination, the Ford dealer. We had only looked at the other mnivans for comparisson. We wanted to go through the Ford dealer to get an estimate of trade in on our old car. The estimate came back higher than we expected. We ran the numbers and it made sense to trade it in on a new car.
We looked at the Freestar but did not really like it. It drove like and Explorer. They did not have any 2006 models in. We were only able to see some used 2005s. They recommended we look at the Freestyle. It is what they call a “Crossover” vehicle. It is between an SUV and an a car. It’s kind of like a really tall station wagon. It’s the same class that the Murano and Toureg are in. Ford’s entry is engineered from their purchase of Volvo. From the first test drive we were hooked. It drives like an SUV but with the mileage of a car. It features a CVT (constant velocity transmission) and gets 27 miles per gallon on the highway. Inside it has nearly all the features of our previous car. The body is nearly the same length.
Our purchase agreement had a residual amount that was $3,000 higher than the present market value. Looks like the Freestyle did not keep its value as expected. Say goodbye to the Freestyle
-Douglas
Most people shy away from leasing and they’ve been stamped as “bad investments”, but we just completed out lease on a 2006 Volvo X90 (SUV) and will absolutely do it again. We got a fully loaded Volvo SUV and all of the maintenance including the oil change was included for a reasonable monthly payment. Dianne primarily drove it around town, so we stayed under 12,000/year (8,500/year average), even though we did take a few short trips in it. When it came close to the time to turn it in, Volvo contacted us to schedule a free inspection, so that we would have the opportunity to fix anything needed before turning it, opening admitting that it was cheaper for us to fix it ahead of time. They found a few scratches and wrote it as “normal wear” and charged us nothing. We turned in the car and paid $0. And, they didn’t hassle us about another lease or purchase, only asking us to consider Volvo again in the future. We definately will!