Suebob's Red Stapler

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your car shopping and owning experiences with me. I love me a two-way conversation.

Now for something Toyota-ish and do-gooderish. And you know how much I love things that are do-gooderish (making up words as I go along here).

Starting March (updated! sorry, I got the date wrong) 14th, Toyota is giving away 100 cars to non-profit organizations with their 100 Cars for Good program.

Hey, here’s a tear-jerking little 2 minute video:

Anyone can nominate a non-profit, then Toyota brings in smart people to pare the list down to a manageable 500, after which the voting begins – you can select from 5 organizations on the Facebook page each day, and each day a car (or truck from the selection offered) is awarded. At the end of the process, 100 groups will have a car.

Please nominate early, because they only take a limited number (up to 5000) of applicants to keep the process from getting totally out of control. If you are stumped for any deserving organizations, any of my posts from late May through early July last year will help you out, because I featured 50 non-profits back then.

If you do nominate, please let me know. I’d love to hear about organizations you think are doing good work.

Disclosure: I am a member of the Toyota Women Influencers Network TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of Toyota or any of its brands.

I have purchased 2 new cars in the past few years in totally different ways. As part of my continuing coverage of car stuff for Toyota, I’d love to hear about how car shopping is for you. I know that most people – and especially women – hate it.

When I bought the BlueMobile, I did the worst thing possible: I fell in love with a particular car and just had to have it. Big mistake if you’re trying to save money.

Goldie in the BlueMobile

My problems were compounded by wanting a car (Honda Fit) that was in short supply in the United States, since it was brand new here. I got the exact car I wanted, but I paid full price.

When the BlueMobile got smashed last April (2011)…

Ow ow ow

…and I needed a new car, I was under pressure. I was driving my mom’s 1994 Lincoln Continental Land Yacht and I felt SO UNSAFE in that car. Part of it was a slight case of PTSD from having just been accordioned on the freeway. The other part was that, in safety years, 1994 was a century ago. A big slippery bench seat, no head restraints, one ancient airbag and a seatbelt that only worked about 70 percent of the time…I felt panicked every time I had to drive that thing.

Fortunately, I had the internet on my side. I did massive research on edmunds.com, cars.com and on car websites to narrow down the cars I wanted to look at to about five small hatchbacks.

The hatchback was for the dog, naturally. I had to have a car that worked for her. She runs my life. The small was for me. I feel some responsibility for trying to keep my carbon footprint smaller by driving a small car.

I wanted to look at, in no particular order:

1. Honda Fit
2. Kia Soul
3. Toyota Matrix
4. Mazda 3
5. 2012 Ford Focus

I went out and test-drove the cars, which was kind of a bizarre experience. The salespeople were generally so low-key that I felt like they some of them weren’t even trying. They were the anti-high-pressure salespeople you always hear about. One guy at the Kia dealership did not say ONE WORD to me during the test drive. I hated the car (the Kia Soul), but even if I had loved it, I wouldn’t have bought a car from him.

I didn’t get to drive a Toyota Matrix because the local dealership didn’t have any. It was a month after the Japan earthquake and things were a little weird with the Japanese car supply (yes, I know many Toyotas are made in the US). The 2012 Ford Focus was not yet available, though I visited 3 dealerships at least 5 times trying to find it.

I drove another Honda Fit, of course, and thought it was a fine option. My favorite car was the Mazda 3, which was so sporty and fun to drive – but it was comparatively pricey and the gas mileage wasn’t great.

But in the end, the Hyundai Elantra Touring won. I hadn’t even considered it originally but a very competent salesman at the Hyundai dealership went out of his was to make sure to call me when they got one in. He figured out what car would suit me best after showing me everything on the lot. They didn’t have an Elantra Touring the day I was first there because they were in short supply, but they got 2 in about a week later, and he called me to come in for a test drive.

I’m not super keen on how it looks, especially the color, which I haaaaate (silver cars are my least favorite). I think the style is pretty dull, though my BFF CC keeps telling me how gorgeous she thinks it is.

For the price – around $20,000 – it has great features (leather, sunroof, nice wheels, Sirius XM) and a 10-year powertrain warranty, which is ultimately what sold me.

I pre-arranged financing with my credit union and also joined Costco to take part in their buying program, which made me feel comfortable I was getting a good loan rate and a good price.

So for me, I felt like the internet was my best friend in car shopping. A good credit rating didn’t hurt, either. I am such a big dope that I could never walk in not knowing what I was doing and attempt to grapple with the salesperson/sales manager and hope to get what I wanted at a decent price.

After my experience test-driving all of those Toyotas the other day, I have a new fantasy – some kind of test-driving facility run as a co-op between all the car dealers without salespeople, but with all makes and models of cars to test, side-by-side, one after the other. No pressure, just a way to directly compare cars. Will someone please make that happen for me?

So tell me about your best or worst car shopping experience. I’d love to know.

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of the Toyota.

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A Landcruiser older than I am in the Toyota Automotive Museum. And me, 31.6 lbs lighter than I was just 14 weeks ago.

I went to Camp Toyota, but I did not knit seatbelts or sing camp songs, unless you count Lady Gaga’s “On the Edge” as I was scaring my fellow bloggers by attempting to manuver a giant Toyota Sequoia around corners (hint: you kind of have to wait for the back end to come around the corner before gassing it too hard).

There were about 15 of us women from the Clever Girls Collective who came to Southern California to do a brand thing with Toyota. Not being a parent blogger, I rarely get invited to Brand Things, so I think it was cool of them to include me, even thought I don’t – *gasp* – have children.

All of us bloggers got to know each other over some great food and wine when we arrived in Hermosa Beach Wednesday night, then went to work early Thursday morning learning All Things Toyota. No, not really all things. There are too many things to know – I’m lucky if I can keep their cars straight at this point, because, as it turns out, they make a car for pretty much every different type of person. They’re smart that way.

But they gave it their best shot, explaining the product design lifecycle, their philosophy, their philanthropic efforts, their commitment to conservation and the environment, and they also did something kind of remarkable – they listened to us talk about cars, car shopping, and what we thought. Well played, Toyota people. Well played.

At lunchtime, we spent two hours driving as many cars as we could. They lined up a bunch of brand new cars, left the keys in the cup holders, and told us to drive as many or as few as we liked, with or without passengers and with or without product experts to answer our questions. OK, YOU EVIL CONTROLLING SLAVE-MASTERS.

I would have driven even more cars, but I got stuck in traffic. Well, first I got lost on the Toyota campus, THEN I got stuck in traffic with a broken-down tractor-trailer rig blocking four lanes of traffic.

I sat there and sat there and sat there in my brand-new RAV4, thinking “OMG, they’re going to think I stole their car!” I imagined a posse of white-faced executives running down the street, high-heels and ties a-flapping, yelling “That blogger woman stole our car!!!”

Eventually I got back, and in 2 short hours I managed to drive:

• RAV4, which is a smallish SUV
• Scion IQ, the tiny four-seater that has all the techy stuff so you can sync your smart phone to your car. No, I’m not joking.
• Camry LXE and SE – the practical but kinda sporty family sedans
• Prius V and C – the Prius V is a hatchback. You KNOW how I love hatchbacks, right? And the C is cute as a button, especially in the Habanero color.
• Highlander Hybrid – a mid-sized SUV that stole my car-loving heart
• Sequoia – it’s big enough for the Duggars, and way comfortable

It was cool to drive cars side-by-side and see exactly what they were like. I thought I’d LOVE the RAV4, but I don’t think I’d buy one after driving it. I’d save my pennies for the Highlander, which I wanted to marry. The Scion IQ was cute as hell, but it felt a little young for me. OK, a lot young. And even though I like to pretend I’m cool and edgy, I settled into the classic family sedan, the Camry LXE, like I was born to it.

It was fun to be at Toyota. It made me nostalgic for work in a business that makes a product, because the people there were so dang proud. I miss that, working in a service industry.

Ok, more about this whole adventure later. I’m wiped out!

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of the Toyota.

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