The Hybrid

I have had my trusty VW Passat V6 wagon for several years.  I’m still proud of it.  It’s an exponentially better ride than most of the other cars I’ve driven.  My mother’s ’73 Plymouth Valiant comes to mind.  The last time I saw that car was on a “Push Pull and Drag” TV ad in 1984, offering a good trade-in value for car that you could get onto the dealer’s lot.  Our poor car was being towed in and held up as an example of the extremes the dealership would go to in order to get new customers.

 

But lately I’ve noticed that my car’s gas mileage hovers around 13 mpg in the city.  Admittedly I drive in dense traffic day in and day out in West Los Angeles, rarely touching a freeway and instead creeping along Sunset, Wilshire, and Sepulveda during peak hours.  The creaks and groans that I get taken care of at the dealership now average around $700 to fix, but I lack the time to find a mechanic to equal the VW’s official auto shop.  The other issue is that my children’s car and booster seats take up the bulk of the back seat.  Under normal conditions, the middle “seat” between them is filled with toys they’ve outgrown but still play with, books, and the action figures and prizes they’ve been given over the years at birthday parties.  A couple of weeks ago, however, the car was called upon to haul all five of us (the kids, my husband and me, and my mother) through Los Angeles at rush hour on a drizzly night.  Because of my relative smallness and nimbleness, I was the only adult candidate to sit between the car seats in back.  I could not even touch both shoulder blades to the seat, and try as I might, I couldn’t dig the middle seat lap belt out of the black leather recesses.  So I rode without a seat belt, crushed over the middle hump in my high heels and dress.  After the roundtrip ended, I was thoroughly crabby from being crammed into the tight space and vowing that, with my husband as my witness, I would never have such a miserable ride again.  (In fairness, this had as much to do with having my hungry children on either side of me, wanting me to feed them like baby birds from the bag of fruit, crackers, and cheese that I’d brought.)

 

So my husband and I have been researching and test-driving cars.  For tax and business reasons, we need to lease the car.  We’ve tried to be pragmatic in assessing our needs, but open to whatever new data is presented to us.  My first priorities were significantly improved fuel economy, the same or better seating (5 comfortably, better yet 6, even if numbers 5 and 6 are not entirely comfortable).  Price was a consideration because we don’t want to feel like suckers.  As much as I like the Woody Allen “Sleeper” look to the Prius, it’s neither practical for me nor a good  price point for the car that it actually is (as opposed to the concept).  Ditto the Toyota Highlander, so the consumer conventional wisdom goes.  Nevertheless, I convinced myself that the Highlander Limited with the 3rd row is the only car that meets most of the criteria.  So we test drove and researched.  The sales representatives have been less that impressive.  They’ve ignored our instructions, contacting us by phone when we requested email, and exhibited poor follow up and courtesy.  To top it off, the lease prices are prohibitive relative to the sticker price of the car (in the low $40′s with options).  There doesn’t seem to be much out there, and what interests me in concept turns out to be a bust when I turn to Consumer Reports or Edmunds.  Here I am thinking of the Ford Escape Hybrid, like the brand new one I rented for two weeks recently, that is rated poorly by Consumer Reports and also has a laughable lease payment.  Then there are the cars that I didn’t exactly want anyway – the tricked out minivans like Sienna and Odyssey – that offer good consumer ratings, spacious interiors and cool features, and little to no improvement in fuel economy.  At moments like this, when GM requested a $30 billion bailout  and announced layoffs for 47,000 workers, I feel really cynical about the auto industry.  Not just the American auto industry, but the entire auto industry.  It doesn’t seem like technological jiu-jitsu to just make a few nice looking cars that fit six people and burn less fuel than a motorhome.  If there were a few such cars, rather than one (on a good day), then maybe there would be some competitive pricing and the economy would be suffering from one less dying industry.  In 2010, or 2012, or 2014, depending on which prescient article you read on the future of hybrids and alternative energy cars, the market will be flooded, FLOODED! one is told.  That’s wonderful.  But what took so long?

 

In the meantime I’m considering all options.  One would think that in this economy moving inventory has some value to both dealerships and car manufacturers.  My hope is that Toyota financing reevaluates their terms and soon.  I still prefer the Highlander Hybrid, but not so much that I want to pay a Mercedes Benz-sized monthly payment for it.  Today I was in the weird position of test driving a BMW X5.  Tomorrow I guess I’ll drive the Lexus RX400h.  If I’m going to get hosed for a giant lease payment, I may as well get joie de vivre with it.