Tales of the HR-V

I really try not to make a huge deal out of things, though it may seem like it. Here's the whale of the story of what Anna and I have been working on the past few days.

Wednesday July 29: Anna and I are doing some serious car shopping, both on line and at CarMax, which looks to be cheaper than Carvana and other actual dealerships. Certified used cars this time, as opposed to small used car dealers and Craig's List. We look at small SUV's. Those in the know say that as far as quality and reliability the ranking is (1) Honda (2) Toyota (3) Mazda with Nissans and others after that. Subarus are good (and pricey) but after her 2011 Forrester died we have ruled them out.

Compared to the CR-Vs and Rav4s and Mazdas, we discover the slightly smaller Honda HR-V, built on the Civic platform, is more affordable. You can get a newer HRV with fewer miles for the same price as other older small SUV's with more miles. Plus since the HRV is a little smaller, it's probably slightly better for Anna's intown driving.

Thursday July 30: we look in Norcross at two white HRVs. The 2018 with 20K miles has been recently reduced $1,000.00, to the same price as the 2017 with 26K right next to it. The only difference we an detect: the 2018 has nicer wheels. Perhaps we should've looked closer. We tell the salesman we'll be back the next day to buy the 2018.

Friday July 31: it takes almost three hours to make the purchase. Earlier in the day Anna drove another HRV that wasn't as nice. She got together her down payment and signed for the loan to pay the rest. Glad to have that behind us.

Saturday August 1: Anna swings by the house. I notice a piece of black trim that is loose. I make a note to get it fixed before the warranty expires.

Thursday August 13: Anna notices the passenger side floor is wet. She makes an appointment at the Honda dealer to check it out, since the car is still under the original manufacturer's warranty.

Tuesday August 18: Anna leaves the car at Ed Voyles Honda on Cobb Parkway. They need to keep it overnight.

Wednesday August 19: I go with Anna for the news: the service manager shows us the leak. The car had been damaged and repaired, and showed us the telltale signs. I should've known the traces of paint I'd seen on black trim meant something. We'd already had talked to CarMax corporate, since it was hard to get a person on the phone at a dealership. Corporate contacted the Norcross manager, who called Anna. Even though the seven day return window had expired, he agreed to take back the car. We started looking again. I spotted a white 2017 at the Southside CarMax and initiated a free transfer to Roswell, in case we didn't find anything else.

Friday August 21: we kept looking for cars, focusing on the HRVs. Anna also looked at Mazdas but the closest best option was in Chattanooga. Transferring it down to take a look would take several days. After supper I drove out to the Roswell CarMax to see if the white HRV had come in. It hadn't, but while there I confirmed a suspicion – this white 2017 was the same exact car we had seen in Norcross. It had been transferred to Morrow but wasn't bought.

Lots of rain Thursday and Friday, so it was good I had the leaky 2018 HRV in the garage.

Saturday August 22: left home before 9 am and drove the 2018 to Norcross to meet with Anna and the Norcross manager. Got 37 mpg on the trip, according to the onboard computer. Anna had spotted a dark grey 2017 HRV in Norcross, so we took a test drive. Inexplicably, this dark grey HRV had a small puddle of water under the back seat. Also a small ding on the side. No thanks. 

We drove 31 miles to the Kennesaw CarMax is look at a silver 2017 HRV, that was a thousand dollars less.  We could see why – it was a little beat up. By now we were checking every car for wet carpet. There also were two black and two red HRVs there in Kennesaw, all with factors that ruled them out. Drove 21 miles to the Roswell CarMax to test drive the white 2017. Most of the other HRVs we'd seen were front wheel drive (including Anna's 2018), but this 2017 was all wheel drive. Better traction. I checked over the car. Molding was secure. All the carpet was dry.

We decided to trade the damaged 2018 for the white 2017, and confirmed the process with both the Roswell and Norcross managers. Had to drive back to Norcross to retrieve the 2018 HRV, which we hadn't wanted to drive all over town. A 32 mile round trip. The return / buying process went much quicker in Roswell than the original purchase in Norcross. I had feared they'd try to hit us with some sort of fee, considering Anna had driven the 2018 almost 900 miles, but all the CarMax people were very accommodating.

Was almost six pm when I got home. Long day out in the hot sun. Anna had driven further than me, a total of almost 150 miles - four hours of driving. She'd done all the work. As her father, it was great to hang out with her all day and share the experience. A rare treat.