![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/CToFsgMWUAE7vkB.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nI mentioned Monday that I fell into a rabbit hole over the weekend. If you pay close attention to all my nonsense, you probably could have made a pretty solid guess as to what that rabbit hole was.<\/p>\n
I am officially car shopping again!<\/p>\n
Just like when I did this three years ago, there\u2019s going to be some background bullshit before we get to the good stuff. I\u2019ll try to be brief, but y\u2019all know how I am. Feel free to skim or skip.<\/p>\n
First we have to jump back for a moment. Three years ago I knew I had a little window in our family\u2019s schedule in which I could get something Really Nice, as Cousin Eddie would say.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Not that I didn\u2019t have nice cars before. But instead of a massive, expensive, domestic SUV that was purchased with hauling kids around, spring break road trips, and lake weekends in mind, my 2021 purchase was a chance to get something smaller, expensive, and foreign before we had to start paying college tuition. When we leased my Audi Q5, I did it knowing when the lease ran out, my next car budget would be significantly smaller. I would still get something nice. But it would be at least one step down from the Audi. Maybe two steps, depending where M went to school.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n (We\u2019ll talk more about the Audi down the road in this series.)<\/p>\n For a few months I\u2019ve been casually doing the early work, including coming up with a mental price range, thinking about what I had to have versus what I could give up, and casually reading reviews and rankings of the vehicles I was interested in.<\/p>\n Generally, I was looking for another small-ish SUV\/crossover. I knew the big thing I would give up was power: when your budget drops by 30\u201340%, the engine is going to take the biggest hit. No more highly-tuned, German turbo fours. Or at least ones that pump out 260 horsepower.<\/p>\n I wanted a well-appointed, comfortable interior that was also nice on the outside. Heated seats are a must, ventilated would be nice. Wireless Apple CarPlay would be great, although that has been a disaster in my Audi and I mostly use a wired connection now. In addition to dropping down in budget, getting better mileage was high on the list. I\u2019ve averaged 24.9 MPG in my Audi, which isn\u2019t bad. But hybrids that get into the high 30s, low 40s were in play.<\/p>\n As tends to happen with any shopping experience, I would start reading, watching videos, etc. and next thing you know I\u2019m suddenly looking at cars that are ballpark price of my Audi. Then I would realize I wasn\u2019t being productive and would set the project aside for a few days.<\/p>\n A couple weeks ago I got a lot more serious about things. S gave me more definitive budget limits, which helped a lot. I figured I would spend the next month heavily on the research side of the project and start test driving after spring break.<\/p>\n I had things roughly narrowed down to three cars: the Honda CR-V Hybrid, Kia Sportage Hybrid, and the Volkswagen Tiguan. The Tiguan is basically a cheaper, slower version of my Q5 and looks the best of the three, but it also has a traditional gas engine and thus the worst mileage. It also has some quirks that could be deal-breakers. I know the Honda will run forever, is readily available in a ton of colors, and gets great reviews. It is also the most boring looking of the three, not interesting to drive, and is, by far, the most expensive of the three. The Sportage is the boldest looking of the bunch, has the most options, is the cheapest, the most powerful, and honestly the only major negative is that it is hard to find one that isn\u2019t black or one of Kia\u2019s three shades of gray. As a bonus, the sales guy who S bought her Telluride from would cut her a check if we bought another car from him.<\/p>\n Every few days another car or two would bounce in and out of the list, but those were the three that seemed to stick.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s where I was at the end of last week.<\/p>\n Over the weekend I was running through my standard Hour(s) Of Wasting Time On Car Shit<\/em> routine. I noticed on the Kia dealer sites promotions for their EVs. Like $5000\u20137500 off before<\/strong> the Federal tax credit, which put them from out-of-reach to firmly within reach. Discounts that big seemed kind of nutty. Especially since we know from our first attempt to buy a Telluride in 2020 that Kia is infamous for promising a discount then throwing markups that cancel them out at you when you hit the showroom.<\/p>\n Still, I was intrigued.<\/p>\n