When one makes a decision, one must look at the long term impact as well as the short term impact. In late August 2007 I had a Cadillac SRX that was three years old and had 120,000 miles on it. The thing about a Cadillac SRX is that it is built on the Sigma platform, and the only cars built on the platform are the Cadillac STS, CTS, and the Buick Enclave and GMC Arcadia. Why is that important? Because when the brake pads need replaced it costs $180 for the non-OEM pads instead of $20. This is because everything on the high end platforms is performance/luxury parts, and they ain’t cheap. A second thing about my SRX is that I wrecked, slightly, when I first had it, and I must have bent the right front mounting bracket for the strut. That thing would burn through a strut in 3,000 to 20,000 miles; and that was a $500 repair bill.
So, taking all of those things into account, I decided to get a new car. Now, I like my vehicles nice. I like the to be somewhat trendy / eye-catching. I like them shiny and new too. So, for me it was down to a Buick Enclave (same exact thing as a Cadillac SRX, just $5,000 less) and a GMC Serria Denali. The Enclave was tight, it had the back up camera, telescoping and automatically controlled steering wheel, and all of the other things that make a vehicle go from okay to WOW! The problem was that they were so popular at the time that GM wasn’t offering any discounts. The GMC was equally tight. It is a pickup truck, it has most of the same features the enclave did (no auto steering wheel settings and it only has back up radars, no camera) and, in addition, it has a 405-hp V-8 engine. Did I mention that it is a big, black, beautiful pickup truck; and GM was offering deals to get them off the lot?
Well, the little economic cars didn’t get a second look. The small Buicks and Pontiacs just didn’t rate a look. Sure, they were $15,000 to $20,000 cheaper, and they got 30+ m.p.g.; but they didn’t make me go wow. So guess what happened, I bought the Denali pickup truck.
Flash forward 10 months. I am paying $4.20 a gallon
for a truck that gets 14 miles to the gallon. On a good week, I get this kind of picture. I have gone from a weekly gas expense of around $25 to something like $100. That is an extra $3,900 a year in gas costs. If gas stayed at the $2.50 a gallon cost, my cost would still have gone up to $60 a week. Think if I had bought a car that got 35 m.p.g., my costs would be somewhere around $40 a week in gas. But, still, I wanted to be WOWed when I bought the truck; and, I guess, I still am.
Later,
B
So, taking all of those things into account, I decided to get a new car. Now, I like my vehicles nice. I like the to be somewhat trendy / eye-catching. I like them shiny and new too. So, for me it was down to a Buick Enclave (same exact thing as a Cadillac SRX, just $5,000 less) and a GMC Serria Denali. The Enclave was tight, it had the back up camera, telescoping and automatically controlled steering wheel, and all of the other things that make a vehicle go from okay to WOW! The problem was that they were so popular at the time that GM wasn’t offering any discounts. The GMC was equally tight. It is a pickup truck, it has most of the same features the enclave did (no auto steering wheel settings and it only has back up radars, no camera) and, in addition, it has a 405-hp V-8 engine. Did I mention that it is a big, black, beautiful pickup truck; and GM was offering deals to get them off the lot?
Well, the little economic cars didn’t get a second look. The small Buicks and Pontiacs just didn’t rate a look. Sure, they were $15,000 to $20,000 cheaper, and they got 30+ m.p.g.; but they didn’t make me go wow. So guess what happened, I bought the Denali pickup truck.
Flash forward 10 months. I am paying $4.20 a gallon
for a truck that gets 14 miles to the gallon. On a good week, I get this kind of picture. I have gone from a weekly gas expense of around $25 to something like $100. That is an extra $3,900 a year in gas costs. If gas stayed at the $2.50 a gallon cost, my cost would still have gone up to $60 a week. Think if I had bought a car that got 35 m.p.g., my costs would be somewhere around $40 a week in gas. But, still, I wanted to be WOWed when I bought the truck; and, I guess, I still am.Later,
B
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