I finally bought a new car. One of the best features is that I now have that rear-view camera. No longer will I have to worry about the sudden appearance of a fire hydrant or tree or person! I also got heated seats. At my age, the warmth of those seats is inviting on the chilly days like the ones we’ve had this past week.
When I left the dealership, the salesman told me he could show me how to hook my phone through the car. I told him not to worry. I can figure that out. I’m very computer literate. And I did!
In my search for a new vehicle, I tried a lot of programs. One that I highly recommend is the rent-to-buy program. A lot of car rental companies offers it. I tried the one through Hertz Car Sales. For the past couple of years, I have always admired the Nissan Rogue. I see it everywhere. I even drove one my friend owns when I was in Denver last year on vacation. So it became my first choice for vehicles.
The rent-to-buy program is different from the normal Hertz used cars. The vehicle is an active rental that will be coming in and they are selling it for a fixed price. No haggle or negotiations are the norm. Best of all, you can look at each vehicle over the internet. I used my smartphone and found one that had just over 10,000 miles, was a 2019, and had all the bells and whistles, including the fob and push-button start, automatic door locks, and a trunk that opens with the press of a button.
I rented the car for the three-day time frame, and you really get to know if you like a car when you use it every day. To my surprise, I didn’t like the car. First off, I found the Rogue to be extremely road noisy. I heard every bump in the road when I was driving it. I later learned from the salespeople when I took the car back and said I had issues, the first thing out of their mouth was noise. Apparently that is a well-known complaint regarding the car.
I also didn’t like the vibration I felt in the steering wheel. I have since learned that when you’ve had a V6 car and you end up downgrading to a 4-cylinder, it is normal to notice the changes because of the size of the engine. I also didn’t think the Rogue was as roomy as I would want. Downgrading from a real SUV like the Montero Sport to crossover SUVs that are more car than truck was extremely noticeable. By the time I finished my three days of test driving, I knew it wasn’t the car for me.
I ended up at a regular car dealership from whom I purchased a new vehicle. I have a fraud alert on my credit report because years ago someone stole my identity and used it. So the first thing that happened was that they came back and told me about the alert. Thank goodness it is still working. The POS who stole my identity can no longer use it to continue to do the damage that he/she once did.
It took me several days, but I finally got rid of my old vehicle. Driving it to the junkyard was something I did not want to do. But my old car can now hopefully be used to help keep other cars running until they too end up there.
