Franklin Avenue

Car Talk
Shopping for a car on a hot summer day in Glendale was enough to give me a headache. First stop was at the Honda dealer to check out the Civic Hybrid, the CRV and the Element. Surprisingly, I ended up really liking our Honda guy's low key approach. He offered us drinks and cookies (see where I'm going?) and was not pushy at all, answering all our questions politely.

I was really impressed with the Hybrid, the idea of re-generating energy is a cool thing. The car was very quiet, Mike wasn't sure if the car started at all when he turned on the ignition. Another fun fact, 650 miles for a full tank of gas. Plus, you can write off $2000 if you buy this car. The CRV is nice, bigger and comfortable without being an insane menace to the other cars on the road. Mike liked that it had both a casette and a CD player. The Element is a total bare bones utility car – no carpeting, plasticy seat covers... in fact, it just felt really plasticy inside and out. It has the same engine as the CRV but we didn't even bother test-driving it when our guy said that even though it is marketed for young kids, it's really popular with the old folks.

Next, was at the BMW dealer where another low key guy (low key is the new hard sell) helped us out. Checked out the 2000 323ci and it was nice, although I felt a little cramped inside because it was a 2-door. Mike liked the drive and the classy feel.

Last stop was at the VW dealer where our guy was so low key, he couldn't even be bothered with a potential sale. I hated the fact that he only kept talking to Mike, assuming that I didn't know anything about cars. Listen buddy, I drive a 6 cyl, 5 speed Jetta GLX and could sometimes be both fast and furious on the road. Mike test-drove the Golf and when we asked the guy about test-driving the Jetta, his answer was it has the same engine as the Golf so we shouldn't bother. Ugh, can we at least see the interior? I had the older model and we wanted to compare. I think the VW is out of the running anyway since my brother Jim kept telling Mike that VWs are a girl's car. Whatever.