And the winner is…..

Yes, I have finally bought a car.

Anyone who knows me or has read this blog will be aware that I don’t believe in brand new cars and I buy my cars for now not tomorrow. But not this time.

It was a tough decision, I finally decided on something that would be appropriate for work, would last a long time and would be capable of carrying dogs and babies (which we don’t have yet). My car allowance rules state “Four doors, less than 50 months old and 90k miles”, So it would have to be pretty new and lowish mileage.

We narrowed it down to the Range Rover Evoque and the Jeep Grand Cherokee (or a BMW 528i which showed on my radar at the last minute…). After a visit to the local Land Rover dealer we were impressed and strongly leaning towards the Evoque, but I was worried about the price, the size of the boot (not really big enough for the two dogs that we don’t yet have) and the fact that I couldn’t get the magic magnetic suspension on any model I could afford and the cost of servicing so we went to visit Jeep.

I was thinking that a one year old Grand Cherokee would be a sensible choice and the saving from buying used would offset the fuel costs of 20MPG (versus the Evoque’s 28).

We arrived at our local dealer and they offered a great deal on a 2012 model, so we took a test drive and both loved it. The Wife had concerns about the size but after a couple of miles she felt okay… until we stopped. With the seat in her position she couldn’t get out (or back in) very easily.

So after some dealing we managed to get a 2013 Grand Cherokee Limited with memory seats that drop down to let her out… somehow my year old $25k Cherokee was now a significantly more expensive brand new model with memory heated and cooling seats, power lift tailgate, GPS, Satellite radio, heated steering wheel (very important in California!), auto headlights, auto wipers, reversing camera, heated rear seat… and I love it. Yes I still look longingly at BMWs and Audis on my drive to work, but what an amazingly comfortable and quiet place to spend my 100 mile round trip each day. A good decision.